I am pretty new here and I am learning quite a bit so far. However, I am finding it hard to search for plant care questions and come up with the answers. So I guess I am asking, via new thread... I have a philodendron, and there are these giant tubors (?) on it (one measuring 4 1/2 " and the other 9" long) and I don't know much about them. Should I clip it off? Should I cut a clipping? Should I leave it? I am enclosing some photos of it... Thanks for any help! 318830
Your photos posted really small so I can't see any detail. Can you repost them at least 9 or 10 inches wide? From what I can see of the venation (veins) could possibly be Philodendron hederaceum. The problem is the petioles appear to be too long. If you can take good photos of any cataphylls that will help to make a good ID. A cataphyll is the sheath-like structure that surrounds any newly emerging leaf blade. Here are a list of the photos that will help to make a good ID: Leaf blade adaxial surface (top) as large as possible. Leaf blade abaxial surface (bottom) as large as possible. The cataphyll as large as possible. The petiole (support of any leaf) as large as possible. The stem (base or cane portion) of the plant showing nodes, internodes and roots if possible. The nodes are what might be called "section" markers and the internodes are the sections between the nodes. The stem is very different from the petiole which supports any blade. A physical description will also help but since this is likely a juvenile may not be definitive. How large are the leaves? Can you measure the internodes? Can you count the number of primary lateral leaf veins? A primary is a prominent vein that emerges from the midrib and extends to the edge of the leaf.
Quick note, cut repot and voila, as I say, if you care for it it will take care too... ok so that make not make hort. sense.... but try cuttings from your potted plant, and allow time to see the results of your careful handiwork.
By the way 318830, what you are calling a tuber is the stem. A tuber is simply another form of stem but the term is not applicable to Philodendron species. http://www.exoticrainforest.com/What is a stem. What is a petiole.html To repot it you'll need to cut the stem (not the petiole) with a couple of nodes and then repot. Aroids require very fast draining soil to prosper so you'd do best to mix your own potting soil. This link will tell you all you need to know to grow them successfully: http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Grow or Growing Philodendrons.html We grow over 100 species in an artificial "rain forest". I'd still like to see the photos I listed so we can possibly figure out what the plant might be.
ok... here are some larger file sizes... I wasn't looking to ID the plant, I was just wondering if I had to take these tubers or stems off. thanks for all the insight! I have since read the other posts, and I thinks these tubers are really roots
Then I won't bother trying to key it out. In your last photo you can see the stem's nodes with air roots. Stems produce the roots and other pats of the plant including the sexual organs which in an aroid are known as an inflorescence or group of flowers. In this species the word "tuber" would not be applicable. These are very common in many rain forest species since most don't grow in soil but instead the plants grow as epiphytes with their roots attached to a tree. Many never have a root even come in contact with the soil. Just cut a piece of any stem section containing several nodes and pot it in a good fast draining soil mix. It should root. Some home growers like to root them in water but that isn't necessary and is something I never do. Aroids need bright indirect light and don't like soggy soil, they need to have constant moisture soil the soil needs to stay damp but not soggy soil. That is why good aroid growers always use a fast draining mix which contains bark, peat, charcoal, sphagnum moss and other additives as I describe in the article I posted. Since these are natural climbers it should be given a totem to climb or it will forever be "leggy".
I trust you will forgive me but I don't like to see information go uncorrected on sites such as UBC since many people read these and then adopt terminology that is not valid. The internet is filled with bad information as a result of people attempting to explain something they haven't correctly researched so the use of the term "tuber" is important since it is incorrect in this case. The term "air root" is not often used by a botanist since the main stem is firmly anchored to a tree as either an epiphyte or hemiepiphyte. There is little difference so an explanation is not needed here. Once the plant climbs to a sufficient height and begins to trail across a limb it drops vines which then produce "air roots". Those "air roots" are the same exact roots that anchor the stem to the host and in many cases eventually grow all the way to the forest floor and then draw additional moisture up to the parent plant. A stem is a plant's main support, base or central axis and its roots anchor the plant either to the ground, a tree or to a rock. A stem may also be a tuber (often called a bulb) but in that case it will grow beneath the soil. The petiole which supports any single leaf is not the same thing as a stem which is something I read on this forum all the time. A stem may also spread as a repent rhizome creeping across the soil (repent indicates the rhizome runs roughly horizontally). When you see a rhizome running across the surface of the ground that rhizome is the stem and may either grow underground or partially above the soil. Aroids such as Amorphophallus species have their stem (tuber) growing underground. With only a few exceptions that tuber produces a single petiole that supports a single divided leaf. Even though we correctly call the stem of that genus a tuber it is still just a stem that produces a single petiole which supports a single divided leaf. Botanist Dr. Wilbert Hetterscheid is the world authority in the genus Amorphophallus and explains, "The tuber is indeed the strongly condensed underground stem consisting in most species of only one node being renewed every year with few exceptions existing." Again, please forgive me if I appear to be arrogant which is never my intent but the world is filled with bad info on plants and I spend a great deal of time trying to help people understand what is true and not true,especially about aroids. My only goal since the day I began to post on UBC has been to share correct information that is botanically correct. This plant appears to be a Philodendron but could easily be member of the neo-tropical genus Monstera or an Asian species belonging to one of five or six other genera. Philodendron and Monstera are not found naturally in Asia. It is also a juvenile which makes a positive ID difficult without more documentation. The juvenile form looks nothing like the adult form in all aroids and Monstera species do not demonstrate their fenestrations (holes or windows) until much nearer adulthood.
Just to satisfy my own curiosity I keyed the plant out based on the little information available. I primarily considered the few characteristics I could see in the photos including the venation (veins), internode length, roots and shape of the juvenile blade since I have both very large as well as juveniles of what appears to be the same plant. A major problem is almost all Philodendron and Monstera look alike when juvenile but there are some differences including petiole and internode length a well as the vein structure. Although it could be many species the plant is very similar to a juvenile Monstera adansonii Schott common to most of Central America down through Bolivia on the west coast of South America and into Brazil. However, juvenile plants look absolutely nothing like the adult just as a human baby looks very little like a 50 year old human. In humans it is known as ontogeny or the natural growth from child to adult while in a plant it is more commonly known as morphogenesis. A common synonym is Monstera friedrichsthallii but that plant is only the juvenile form of Monstera adansonii which has just begun to develop the "holes". Unless the plant is allowed to climb the fenestrations (holes) are not likely to develop.
It's going to take me awhile to sift through all of that, but once I understand the vocabulary as in the link in a previous reply, but I will go through and try to take more photos after I "get" it ('cause I don't get it yet), and know what to shoot and how to describe it!
Some help. These characteristics are important when attempting to identify a species. Petioles support leaf blades and are technically a part of the leaf. Petioles do not produce roots, stems or internodes. A petiole may be round (terete), somewhat square as well as other odd shapes, have a groove (sulcus) or other features which are important to the ID. Stems are the main axis or support of the entire plant and support the petioles as well as produce roots, nodes and internodes. The roots grow from the nodes as do the petioles and sometimes even new stem segments as in your second and last photos. These new stem segments are known as "shoots". In the case of your plant what most would call the vine is actually the stem. Most Philodendron and Monstera species begin life as a vine, climb a tree, grow out on a branch and then drop vines that sometimes grow back to the ground. In some species such as Caladium, Amorphophallus, Colocasia and others the stem is also known as a tuber (corm, bulb) but not in Philodendron, Monstera, or Anthurium species. The stem's nodes also produces the reproductive organs known as an inflorescence. The inflorescence is composed primarily of a spathe and spadix. The spathe is not a flower but instead is a group of flowers. The flowers are near microscopic and grow along the spadix. The cataphyll is the sheath-like structure that surrounds any new leaf blade. Other than the inflorescence the cataphyll is the single most important characteristic used to determine the species of an aroid. Every aroid has uniquely shaped inflorescences and cataphylls. The shape of the cataphyll can be very different from species to species so is a very important feature to photograph. This link will answer most questions: http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Grow or Growing Philodendrons.html
