IAS Aroid Quasi Forum

About Aroid-L
 This is a continuously updated archive of the Aroid-L mailing list in a forum format - not an actual Forum. If you want to post, you will still need to register for the Aroid-L mailing list and send your postings by e-mail for moderation in the normal way.

  'Self-heading' Philodendrons.
From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2001.09.04 at 15:03:54(7333)
Hello Friends,

Just a quick note, I am trying to determine if anyone in the group has in
their collection plants of a few of the rarer, smaller 'self-heading' group
of Philodendron, section Meconostigma. The best-know species belonging to
this group is the ubiquitous and giant P. bipinnatifidium or P. 'selloum' in
the trade, P. goeldii, and P. williamsii.
[All of these species are generally available for sale at the IAS show in
Miami later this month, and there will be plant specimens grown from seed of
another giant of this group, P. solimoesense, collected in Fr. Guyane at
auction later this month at the annual IAS show and sale in Miami, don`t
miss it!!]
I am particularly interested in hearing from anyone that has plants of P.
leal-costae, a species whose leaves resemble that of another species in this
group, the much larger P. goeldii, the 'Scheff.-leafed' Philodendron. P.
leal-costae is smaller, and grows in nature in very dry areas of E. Brazil,
it puts out specialized roots that seek out water in the leaf-'cups' of
bromileads amongst which it grows. Friends tell me that it did not
survive in their collections, but I read that there are specimens growing at
Burle Marx`s collection in Brazil and perhaps Kew, and I THINK I heard that
there may be a few in collections around Miami? Two other species I`d love
to find are the small Brazilian species P. saxicolum and the closely related
P. adamantinum, both have deeply divided pinnatifid leaves, but P.
adamantinum has much deeper divisions, reaching almost down to the peduncles
attachment. Photos of these last two species can be seen in Aroideana Vol.
1, No.1 of 1978 ( ! ) , and of P. adamantinum in the recent issue, Aroideana
Vol. 23 of 2000. I have also had the pleasure of seeing a beautiful old
plant of P. saxicolum at Selby Gardens. I was wondering if anyone had
imported seed of any of these species in the more or less recent purchase of
Aroid seed from Brazil, and if anyone did manage to grow any plants to
maturity from this imported seed?
Another question--- in the article in Vol.23, ( "Araceae of campos rupestres
from Espinhaco Range in Minas Gerais State, Brazil", by C. M. Sakuragui, pg.
56.) I am somewhat confused by the illustrations of the pistilate flowers of
a couple of the Philodendrons being discussed, namely P. cipoense and P.
biribiriense, these illustrations do not allow me to 'determine' if they
belong to the section Meconostigma, the 'self headers'. I know that two of
the species discussed, namely P. adamantinum and P. uliginosum do in fact
belong to this section, yet the illus. in Fig. 9 of the pistilate flowers of
P. uliginosum ('B' and 'F') are quite different one to the other, 'F' has a
crown of 'hairs' much like the illus. of the pistilate flower of P.
biribiriense in Fig.5, both of these illus. of pistilate flowers do not look
like the illus. of pistilate flowers in Simon Mayo`s most excellent paper 'A
revision of Philodendron subgenus Meconostigma (Araceae)' of 1990. My
question is --do P. cipoense and P. biribiriense belong to the Philodendron
subgenus Meconostigma?

I am looking forward to seeing all of you in Miami later this month!

Sincerely,

Julius Boos

+More
Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.