Start PagePhenologyFlowering ionly in wet season

Flowering in dry-season and wet season:

This is the largest flowering category among Central American P. subg. Philodendron. A total of 47 species fall into this category. Although these species begin flowering during the dry season, the dry season rarely constitutes the period of greatest flowering activity (except perhaps in the case of P. hederaceum, a species which though apparently flowering all year and thus aseasonal appears to have more flowering collections made during the dry season than at any other time of the year). This is particularly true of species inhabiting regions of Tropical moist forest (T-mf) or other areas where the marked seasonal changes are apparent and reduce the availability of beetle pollinators. Species such as P. fragrantissimum, P. panamense, P. sagittifolium, P. grandipes, P. pterotum, and P. radiatum all would fall into this category.

Those species occurring in cloud forest habitats (usually Premontane rain (P-rf) or Lower montane wet forest (LM-wf) where the availabiltiy of beetle pollinators would not necessarily be diminished by drought also seem to have more flowering in the rainy season even though they are more apt to be in flower in the dry season than their Tropical moist forest (T-mf) counterparts.

Though perhaps it is merely a matter of poor sampling, species which are more common, widespread or locally abundant tend to have flowering seasons which extend from the dry season to the wet season, whereas species which are rare seem much more likely to have flowering restricted to either the dry season or the wet season.