Philo. "Xanadu"

From: Scott Hyndman <scothynd at magicnet.net> on 1998.11.19 at 00:28:36(2768) Julius Boos wrote: > -----Original Message----- > From: alistair_hay@rbgsyd.gov.au > To: ju-bo@msn.com > Date: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 8:17 PM > Subject: Re[2]: Philo. "xanadu" > +More > >> We too have this as `correctly' called Philodendron Winterbourn. > Maybe that name is a beter lead into finding out the parentage. > > Alistair<< > > Thanks, Alistair!!! Come on folks, SOMEONE out there must know SOMETHING > about the origins/parentage of Philodendron Winterbourn (aka P. "xanadu"). > Drop us a line with whatever info., no matter how small, on this plant. > Cheers, > Julius > ju-bo@msn.com Dear Julius and all, I first saw Philodendron 'Xanadu' as a photograph presented to me during my tenure as a micropropagation production lab manager for the now dissolved division of Weyerhaeuser Tissue Culture back in the spring of 1987. The Australian nurseryman presenting the new cultivar was hoping that a large U.S. horticultural company like Weyerhaeuser might be interested in producing and marketing this unique Philodendron. It was nominated as the Australian Nurseryman's Association Plant of the Year and it had received a good reception from the Australian market. I felt that the P. 'Xanadu' was a real winner for the US market as well. However, the upper management of Weyerhaeuser did not recognize the potential of the plant and passed on the opportunity. A couple of years later, I know that Twyford Plant Laboratories (http://www.twyford.com) did gain the U.S. patent for P. 'Xanadu' and have been successfully producing the plant since then. I contacted Beth Lamb, New Products Development Manager of Twyford Plant Laboratories, about the origin of P. 'Xanadu' and she asked that I pass along the following information to Aroid-L: >Hi Scott, > Xanadu is a neat plant!, one of my favorites. Perhaps this information >from the U.S. patent will help: >Philodendron Winterbourn (trade name: Xanadu) >Inventors: Veronica L. and Barry M. Winterbourn, P.O. Box 12, Gosnells, >Australia. >Patent Number: 7030 >Date of Patent: Sept. 12, 1989 >Origin as stated in paragraph 1 of the Patent: > "The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of >Philodendron which is believed to be a sport of the Philodendron >selloum. The plant was grown from a seed found in a collection of seeds >from the Philodendron selloum and is believed to be derived from that >variety. The denomination of this new variety is "Philodendron >Winterbourn". >Best Regards, >Beth Lamb I hope this helps shed some light on the enigmatic Philodendron 'Xanadu'. I will leave the nomenclature to Alistair and Wilbert, and the taxonomy to Tom. By the way, P. 'Xanadu' does just as well as P. selloum as a landscape plant here in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 7b, and is widely used as a landscape plant at Disney as Lester Kallus has correctly observed. Regards, Scott Mr. Scott E. Hyndman USDA, ARS, USHRL Orlando, Florida USA E-mail: scothynd@magicnet.net

From: "Julius Boos" <ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 1998.11.19 at 14:28:09(2769) Dear Scott, Thank you so very much for the above information. That it was said that P."xanadu" was suspected to be the result of a "sport" grown from a seed of P. "selloum" would explain some of the stories I`d heard about P. "xanadu" being the same species as P. "selloum". As luck would have it, the recent collection of infloresences from two seperate plants of P. "xanadu", one in W.P.B. and the other in Miami, show that with out a doubt that this plant can not be P. "selloum", (see my post to Bob Riffle of 11/16 for a brief discription of the differences between the infloresences of these two species). Tom Croat will examine and compare the infloresences of the P."xanadus" we collected to other species to try for a positive I.D., and I`d suggest he begin with P. pinnatafidium (excuse the spelling, no reference at hand) which Dr. Birdsey suspects it may be. We may also wish to try to contact the original growers in Australia and ask what other species of Philodendron they had at the time they sowed the seed. It is mentioned that it was grown from a collection of seed from the P. selloum, and my guess would be that these seed were not produced in Australia, but probably imported from a supplier of seed from S. America, and were probably miss-labled or mixed with another species, hence the probable mix-up in parentage names. Time will hopefully tell! Thanks to all, and lets keep "digging". Tom, let us know what you find out! Cheers, Julius +More ju-bo@msn.com >>Mr. Scott E. Hyndman USDA, ARS, USHRL Orlando, Florida USA E-mail: scothynd@magicnet.net<<

From: CBL451 at aol.com on 1998.11.19 at 18:37:27(2773) Scott, I hope you meant zone 9b for Orlando. If not you must be in an extremely cold pocket!!! Here at Leu Gardens in Orlando we just planted a large bed of Xanadu for a groundcover in an area shaded by Live Oaks. From my experience they seem to be as hardy as Selloum. Unfortuneatly I don't have anything to add to the naming mystery but am interested in what finally comes about. +More Eric Schmidt Orlando, FL.

From: Scott Hyndman <scothynd at magicnet.net> on 1998.11.19 at 22:47:01(2774) Eric, My mistake: zone 9b it is! I lived the first half of my life in zone 5a, so anything south of zone 7b seems warm to me. I once lived in a cold pocket in Apopka, just a 30 minute drive to the north of Orlando, that probably was close to a zone 8b micro climate. During the Christmas freeze of 1987 I actually saw ice crystals/snow in the air. There wasn't much left of the subtropical landscape after two consecutive nights of -8 C (17 F). Seriously though, it would be interesting to know the limits of the growing temperatures of P. 'Xanadu'. I suppose it should be similar to P. selloum. Thanks for the correction, and I am happy to see someone else on the list from Orlando. Regards, Scott +More Scott E. Hyndman USDA, ARS, USHRL Orlando, Florida, USA USDA Hardiness Zone 9b E-mail: scothynd@magicnet.net CBL451@aol.com wrote: > Scott, I hope you meant zone 9b for Orlando. If not you must be in an > extremely cold pocket!!! Here at Leu Gardens in Orlando we just planted a > large bed of Xanadu for a groundcover in an area shaded by Live Oaks. From my > experience they seem to be as hardy as Selloum. Unfortuneatly I don't have > anything to add to the naming mystery but am interested in what finally comes > about. > Eric Schmidt > Orlando, FL.

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