Don't mess with a Philodendron

This is what happens when you mess with a Philodendron! ;-)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bonkita/150758689/sizes/l/

Handling a smaller tree:
http://www.blueboard.com/pahatan/gambar/p_bipinnatifidum_img11.htm

 

It is normal for most Philodendrons to climb in the nearest tree.

 

Yeah, I just like the way it looks like the more woody species (.e.g meconostigma aroids) seem to be "strangling" or "hugging" their hosts....

 

I would prefer to use "hugging" that is actually what the roots do.

 

Hugging it is then....we'll leave the "strangling" to banyan type trees....it would be interesting to find out though whether such multiple "hugs" could impede the flow of phloem transport in expanding herbaceous hosts....

 

Two Philodendron bipinnatifidum's hugging each other in the NY botanical garden:

http://www.blueboard.com/pahatan/gambar/p_bipinnatifidum_img10.htm

While another is in the first stages of embracing a woody host in the Sunken Gardens in St. Petersburg, FL.

http://www.blueboard.com/pahatan/gambar/p_bipinnatifidum_img30.htm

The ultimate hugfest - the 100+ years old Imperial Philodendron (P. speciosum) at the San Francisco Conservatory shows how touchy feely it is:

http://www.blueboard.com/pahatan/gambar/p_speciosum_img12.htm

 

Doesn't seem to, at least not with multiple Anthurium "hugs" on a single host tree. And I'm talking about some pretty impressive big specimens, here.