One of the things I brought repeatedly for him, because he was always losing
it, was a philodendron I collected on Colombia's Pacific coast which Tom
Croat provisionally suggested might be P. tenue, but he only saw a black and
white photo. That was in 1985 and we didn't have fax machines, let alone
computers and digital cameras. It had amazingly long hastate leaves in
relation to their width, thick and leathery. The ratio was similar to that
of the leaves of P. spiritus-sancti. Now Ivan has killed my own plant (it
was a slow grower) and I don't know if anyone inherited Monroe's, if he had
any at the time of his death. Do you happen to know?
Anyway, my reason for writing is that in Guyana we used to eat an
aroid called "spinach". It was smallish, with dark green sagittate leaves
about 6 inches long and was cultivated on dry ground as far as I know, and
had a very delicious flavour. As I remember it, thorough cooking was
necessary to avoid it "scratching" your mouth. It was regularly sold in the
market. I have seen it in Barbados, but attempts to grow it in Grenada have
not been successful. Do you recognize this plant from my description, and
is it grown in Trinidad?
Yours sincerely,
John Criswick.
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