PHILODENDRON ANISOTOMUM
PROTOLOGUE: Philodendron anisotomum , published in Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 8: 179 (1858).
Philodendron (Tritomophyllum) anisotomum Schott Merkwürdig durch die Gestalt der Blattplatte. Während der Mitteltheil breit elliptisch ist, zeigen sich die abstehenden Seitentheile schmal lanzettig und Mondsichelartig aufwärtsgebogen. Guatimala. Wendland.
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Philodendron fenzlii var. anisotomum (Schott) Engl.
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Philodendron dagilla Schott; Philodendron rothschuhianum (Engl.) Croat & Grayum; Philodendron trisectum Standl.; Syngonium rothschuhianum Engl.
DISTRIBUTION: Mexico to Colombia: Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Nicaragua, Panama.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: iNaturalist: Alajuela, Cartago, Chiapas, Guanacaste, Heredia, Puntarenas, San José.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Translated from protologue: Remarkable for the shape of the leaf blade. While the middle portion is broadly elliptic, the spreading lateral portions are narrowly lanceolate and curved upward like a crescent moon.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek anisos, “unequal,” and tomos, “cut” or “divided,” referring to the leaf blade divided into unequal parts. Although the original description does not explicitly explain the name, it likely alludes to the strikingly asymmetric leaf, whose broadly elliptic central portion contrasts with the narrow, crescent-shaped lateral lobes.
NOTES:
1. Type locality: Guatemala, where the plant was collected by Wendland. Schott placed the species in his group Tritomophyllum, whose name refers to the three-parted leaf blade — here a broadly elliptic central portion flanked by two narrow, upcurved lateral lobes.
STORY:
STORY TITLE: The unequally divided leaf that named a species
When Heinrich Wilhelm Schott described this Central American aroid in 1858, it was the leaf that struck him. He called it merkwürdig — remarkable — for the shape of its blade: a broad, elliptic center from which two narrow, lance-shaped lobes spread outward and curved upward like the points of a crescent moon.²
That three-parted form gave the plant both its name and its place in Schott’s system. He filed it under Tritomophyllum, “three-cut leaf,” and coined the epithet anisotomum, “unequally divided,” for the way the central and lateral portions differ so sharply in width. The plant behind the description had been gathered in Guatemala by Wendland, whose collections fill the same page of Schott’s account with new Costa Rican and Guatemalan species.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Philodendron anisotomum
2. Oesterreichische Botanische Zeitschrift 8: 179 (1858) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Philodendron anisotomum
Additional photos by David Scherberich
Additional photos from iNaturalist by John D Reynolds, Alexis López Hernández, Arnon Oldja, Cody Limber, jomodi794, alinabr, pfromthev, witlesswanders, Alejandro Villalobos, Eric Koberle, Jake Rehage, Jorge Bogantes Montero, regina senior, risingturtle43, Steven (Esteban) Mendez, Arthur de Jesús Chavarría Pérez, coqwallon, Dan Osipov and Dayron