Burle-Marx

From: "Eduardo Goncalves" edggon at hotmail.com> on 2000.10.03 at 15:40:13(5508) Dear Aroiders, I am just back from a visit to the Burle-Marx collection at Rio de Janeiro, and I think I should share my impressions with all of you. For those that don't know him, Roberto Burle-Marx was a Brazilian architect and painter, but he is mainly know for the gardens and landscapes he created, usually using lots of aroids. His collection of plants (approximately 400 spp. of Aroids!!!!) is really impressive, mainly if you consider that most climbing Philodendron (and other climbing genera) are towering up to 4 m high and flowering like crazy. If you have never seen Dieffenbachias with stems measuring 20cm diam. (and up to 2 m high), you probably will be shooked up there! I could count 29 different aroid genera growing there, including mature plants of Heteropsis! The main group represented in his collection is Philodendron, including very rare plants like P. alternans and P. distantilobum. Anthurium is also well represented, as well as Dieffenbachia. Alocasias are also diverse, including 3m high plants of A. portei and the biggest A. macrorrhizos I could see in my whole life! Aglaonemas are everywhere, sometimes covering considerable portions of the beds. It is also possible to see big plants of Philodendron spiritus-sancti (formerly known as P. "Santa-Leopoldina") as well as many undescribed species and weird hybrids. Most plants are full-sized, and in fact for most species I know, his plants are the biggest I have seen! His collection seems like heaven to the eyes, but looks like hell to the brain! He have amassed plants for more than 30 years, but his interests for plants were merely aesthetic. He collected in Panam?, Colombia, Ecuador and mainly in Brazil, but never kept any kind of information concerning origin for any material. After his death (in 1994, if I am not confusing), it became impossible to bring back the information about the origin of his plants, so the scientific importance of his collection can be considered limited. Things get worse when we realized that many plants were also donated, bought, traded and even "created" like hybrids. To ID those things is a real challenge for brave aroiders. It is like a voyage to the chaotic world of morphological variation... If you think you know aroids, you should visit there to remember that our knowledge about these plants is rather fragmentary and insufficient. +More Very best wishes, Eduardo. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.

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