I enjoy tracking down rare plants. I have two plants in my collection that came with the tag philodendron Santa Leopoldina. For a long time I had no idea where the name came from. I decided to look it up on one of the major plant ID name sites and nothing came up. After hunting for quite a while I found that name is not a botanical name. It was a common name used in Brazil (since it was found near the town of Santa Leopoldina) for a plant known to science as Philodendron spiritus-sancti G.S. Bunting. I finally found a photo of the real plant (see attached) and it looked nothing like either of the plants in my collection. I finally learned P. spiritus-sancti is extremely rare, there are only 6 known specimens left in all of Brazil. That information came from Dr. Eduardo Gonçalves (Brazil's top botanist) and Mauro Peixoto in Brazil. Both are experts on Brazilian philodendrons. Now here is the point of my post. I often see plants for sale via on-line auctions as philodendron Santa Leopoldina. Almost none are the same plant! And none look like the real plant. I'd like to ask anyone who has a plant in their collection with the tag philodendron Santa Leopoldina to post a photo here so I, and others, can see what kind of variety of plants are receiving this misnomer. By the way, the real Philodendron spirtus-sancti often brings well over $1000 when one is available at serious plant auctions such as the International Aroid Society. I finally found out that one of my two plants is probably Philodendron angustilobum from Costa Rica. Dr. Tom Croat, who identified that plant in his office, has no idea what the other actually is. I sent the photo of the second to Dr. Gonçalves in Brazil and he has no suggestions either. Does anyone have any idea why all these plants have been given this misnomer? Some will surely try to explain the plant has 4 variations. Correct. Sort-of. When the plant was more abundant there were 3 variations in Brazil but all basically appeared the same. The difference was the underside of the leaves on the variations were of different color shades. Some were redder than others, one was green. According to the experts the plant has basically the same appearance. One discussion I found on the net tried to explain all the different plants available are "variations" and only one type has value. According to the information I've received from Brazil that is not correct. Are plant sellers just trying to capitalize on the name of a very rare plant? BTW, just in case you are curious like me there are several good articles in Aroidiana (1983 and 2004) about the real plant. I've posted what I can learn on my own website but I'm trying to learn more. Thanks!
I received a personal email which may explain part of the mystery of how so many plants get the name Santa Leopoldina. I no longer have a copy of the book Tropica because I sold it on eBay. The book is filled with botanical errors such as bad plant names. Apparently from the information in the email Tropica lists plants as forms of Santa Leopoldina which they are obviously not. This may be the source of all the confusion.
If you have a plant you believe is Santa Leopoldina get in line! We have now found more than 10 plants being sold with that name. And there are more to be found on the internet! Want to sort out the confusion, read this one: http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Philodendron spiritus-sancti PC.html
