Most of those who have read my posts in the past know I greatly admire Dr. Tom Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Since 1994 I've been fortunate to receive regular correspondence from Tom and he let me in on a new aroid "secret" just this week. There is a very beautiful and rare strap leaf Philodendron which he discovered some years ago in the Chocó region of NW Colombia in South America. He has always intended to name the Plant "Philodendron splendidum" but due to the massive backlog of newly discovered species currently in the MOBOT greenhouse the plant many serious collectors know as "Philodendron splendidum" was never published to science. As it turns out another botanical scientist has now published a completely different Philodendron from Brazil with the name Philodendron splendidum. As a result, the plant most of us know by that name will now have a completely different scientific name. Dr. Croat has entrusted me with the new name but I've agreed not to publish it until he gets the scientific papers in print. Obviously the point is to make sure the name does not slip away this time. The name Philodendron splendidum will soon be a published species, just not the Philodendron some of us have paid fairly large sums to own. But I will give you a vague clue! The new scientific name will be a female given name that has been Latinized. Sorry I can't make the name public but if you are growing this beautiful strap leaf plant you might want to change the tag to "Philodendron unknown" for now. If we're lucky maybe this one will be published scientifically before the end of 2009. You can see Dr. Croat's specimen here: http://www.ecuagenera.com/epages/whitelabel4.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/ecuagenera/Products/PRE2739
But there are pictures published in Tropicos of this sp. . So they must have been put there before being described . It all seems to have changed ,, I just went to try and find the image again .. I have it saved ,, dreamt of growing it , BUT ..
In my dreams Steve , have heard it can be hard to grow ,, most likely a cool grower . Brian pointed it out to me years ago .. and I spent many hours searching many of the pictures on the tropicas database after seeing these pics .. in a vain attempt to id the so many spp. with dodgy or no name .
Chocó appears to be at an elevation of approximately 1000 meters (3,200 feet) but is one of the wettest places on the world with over 525 inches of rain per year. I know of two growers in Hawaii, both on the east coast of Oahu,that grow the plant well enough to be able cut and sell it from time to time. Dr. Croat has said he believes the species is endemic (exclusivly found in) Chocó despite the fact it is often sold as an Ecuadorian species. All the photos I've seen which were shot in the wild indicate the plant is a hemiepiphyte so my guess is it needs very high humidity with frequent water but obviously the roots would have to be in very fast draining soil to avoid rot. We have plans to visit with Tom again in about 6 weeks and this plant will be high on the list of things we plan to discuss. If I come back with good info I'll pass it along. By the way, the plant must be relatively rare even in Chocó since Tom was able to recognize the location where each of the photos I found were actually taken.
Mic, I somehow missed your earlier post about the photos on TROPICOS. Dr. Croat often gives the names of the plants he is working on to the IT people at TROPICOS and they are published there prior to a peer review and the scientific publication. I've run into this several times when I checked the name on the International Plant Names Index before going to TROPICOS. IPNI does not list it yet TROPICOS does. If you check TROPICOS now you'll find the name Philodendron splendidum has been deleted. There are several other names Tom has proposed which you can find at various places on the internet that have yet to be published.
Steve, I bet it's sold as an Ec species because we have some very similar ones down here. Not the same, though - Dr. Croat's plant has much longer blades than the Ecuadorean ones.
If you have a photo would you post it? Tom has seen the photo on the Ecuagenera site and says it is the specimen he located in Colombia. In fact, he knows the guy in the photo.
Below is what I have for a similar Philo. The leaves on this one are less ornate than the one in Trikus' photo, which is what makes me question whether it's the same species. This is from the transitional forest above Mera, in the Pastaza Province, at about 1100 msnm (an area very similar biodiversitywise to the Choco.) It's a full epiphyte, but I saw others growing hemi. And you're absolutely right about the Choco region; we have a nearly identical biome in the North of Ecuador called the Alto Choco, which is about 1500-1800 m but again one of the wettest places in the country. All of the aroids I saw in both Choco sectors were hemiepiphytes growing in an extremely quick-draining "soil" that was actually mostly moss and decaying moss bodies. Equally, even in a low area, any place in South America with that much rainfall is quite cool; cooler, in fact, than similar altitude and vegetation areas outside of the rainfall zone. My observed growth rates on plants in the Alto Choco is extremely fast - I did a series of 5 visits about 3 weeks apart, and some of the larger Philos had grown more than 10" and two new leaves in the three-week gap. They slowed down a bit to bloom, but that's about the only thing that retarded their growth.
Beth, can I ask that you send this to Tom in a size as large as is reasonable? Also, give him the details on where the photo was taken. Since Philodendron are so variable it could be the same species and Tom may be aware of its existence but I'd sure like to know. Copy the email to me if you will please and I'll fill him in on the details..
Will do - probably tomorrow, though. That file's on one of my myriad archive disks and I'll have to try and recall which visit to the Mera forests it was from. I do know, within about 10 meters, exactly where that plant is, though. I wish I'd climbed the tree, now, to take dorsal surface photos.
Thanks a bunch. From our discussions I'm not certain Tom is aware of this plant existing in Ecuador assuming it is the same species. Your observation could prove to be valuable once he publishes the species.
Cool. I'm off to the QBG tomorrow to see if there's seed on that mother big unknown. If so, I'll be drying and sending some along to you so you can have a kick at it.
Beth, if we manage to put together the group trip to Ecuador in 2010 I will owe a bunch of hugs! That has to be one of the most stunning Anthurium specimens ever! And by the way, in a few months I hope we'll be able to tell everyone more about our proposed legal aroid collection trip to Ecuador. Just a few more things to be ironed out so all I can offer now is the tease.
