From: ExoticRainforest <Steve at ExoticRainforest.com> on 2009.08.14 at 06:14:15(19716)
Hi Hermine. This is really Julius'territory but since he is under the weather right now I'll take a stabat it.
As far as I can learn, and Julius and I have talked about this a greatdeal, the species was described from tissue cultured specimens. Thatis unusual in botany but there was a great deal of info that leadJulius with Tom and Simon Mayo's help to believe the plant was unique. You can read about that in two different articles by Julius found inAroideana.
I believe the variations you appear to be describing are primarily aresult of tissue culture. The plant was licensed to a variety of labsto be TC'd and what comes out of the lab depends largely on what goesinto the test tube! Too much of a chemical and the plants will vary. This one has been very strange at producing a lot of plants with doublespathes and/or deformed spathes. I've seen several and there have beenmembers of Aroid l post photos from Disney in Orlando with crazyspathes. I've been unable to learn if anyone has been successful atgrowing any of these plants form seed but if so they should stabilizeto some degree.
The other problem is simply the natural variation in any aroid. Ittook me a long time to begin to get a handle on it but there is a wildamount of variation in Philodendron and Anthuriumspecies. I consulted with Julius, Leland and Tom for weeks and read aton of published material before trying to write an article explaininghow variation and morphogenesis work. You can find that on my sitesince it is listed right on the home page near the bottom right.
I have one of Julius' original specimens that he used during the periodwhen he was working on the description and mine is old enough toproduce inflorescences. However, I'm not talented enough to make itpollinate so I don't know if I'll ever see berries and seed. Mineproduces good inflorescences so someday I hope to give it a try.
One note. Leland Miyano believes, and I think he has actually seen aplant in Brazil that is very much like P. xanadu but islarger. I also have a friend that lives near Mexico City that broughtback seeds from Brazil some 20 years ago (well before tissue culturewas popular) and his plants are identical to those we see in tissueculture but stay perpetually smaller than the ones Leland describes. He tells me he got the seeds from a friend that grew a lot of aroids inhis yard in Brazil and the plant was quite common. As I recall, thatfriend lived near Sao Paulo. As a result I have no doubt this plantis a species but there is still a great deal to be learned. But to befair, I know for certain there are people that read all the mail onthis forum that don't believe it is anything but a hybrid.
I'm sure you know that a great deal of the forest in Brazil has beendevastated so many species will likely never be found in the wild. Youcan log on to Google Earth and see huge areas of clear cut forest! Plants used to live there that only collectors likely grow and few ofus have any collection data. I've been fortunate enough to receivefour plants from the collection of Roberto Burle-Marx that wereapparently wild collected but there is zero collection data. MOBOTsold some of their Burle-Marx cuttings a few months ago and I managedto get one of those that is now quite large. If we can get Leland tochime in I believe he can tell you about the plants he has seenincluding the one that may well be the original parent of P. xanadu!
As the story goes the original plants grown in Australia came fromseeds supposedly of Philodendron bipinnatifidum that wereimported into Australia. I've been told that one of those seeds looked"different" and was the first P. xanada grown down under.
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