PHILODENDRON ARISTEGUIETAE
PROTOLOGUE: Philodendron aristeguietae , published in Acta Botanica Venezuelica 10: 290 (1975). The protologue is reproduced below.
DISTRIBUTION: N. Venezuela: Venezuela.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Translated from protologue: Small climbing herb to 3–4 m long. Stem monopodial, slender, at first dark green, later grayish light brown, 0.5–0.6 cm in diameter, the internodes 4–8 cm long. Petiole (on a flowering shoot) to 10–13.5 cm long and 1.6–2.1 cm wide, channeled ventrally in the central part, winged on each side to the base of the geniculum, the wings unequal, spreading, flattened, firm, glossy, green and persistent, abruptly narrowed at the apex into a free, rounded appendage (0.3–0.5 cm) that slightly overlaps the base of the blade; geniculum 0.5–1 cm long, semiterete, concave ventrally; on the leaf subtending the inflorescence the petiole with its wings is 1.9–2.8 cm wide. Leaf blade subcoriaceous, obliquely ovate, in life usually truncate or slightly emarginate-subcordate at the base and often moderately inequilateral (when dried often obtuse), acuminate at the apex, to 16–18.5 cm long and 8.5–10 cm wide; adaxially dark green, not polished but faintly shining, except for the sulcate midrib, which is bright green; primary lateral veins 5–6 on each side, scarcely impressed; abaxially pale green, hardly glossy, the midrib slender and convex, the primary veins slender and slightly prominent, some secondary veins evident in the larger leaves, and all the minor veins fine, nearly equal to one another and parallel.
INFLORESCENCE:
Translated from protologue: Inflorescences in threes, all subtended by a single green cataphyll that is two-keeled and winged on the back. Peduncle green, 3.5–5.5 cm long and 0.9–1.1 cm thick. Spathe at anthesis glossy dark green outside, later blackish green, pale green and glossy inside, laterally compressed with an angular back, narrowing far upward to an acuminate apex, 10–11.5 cm long at anthesis, constricted ca. 3.7–5.5 cm above the base; tube ovoid, 1.7–3.4 cm thick; blade hooded (when open), narrowing into a conical-acuminate appendage 1–1.5 cm long. Spadix 1–1.5 cm shorter than the spathe, stipitate, the stipe 0.4–0.7 cm long and thick; pistillate part 2.4–3.8 cm long and 1–1.8 cm in diameter; sterile staminate part ca. 0.5 cm long and 1.4–1.6 cm in diameter, fertile part ca. 5 cm long and 1.2 cm in diameter, obtuse at the apex. Pistillate flowers with a 4-locular ovary, with numerous superposed ovules in each locule. Berries unknown.
ECOLOGY:
Found as a climber up tree trunks in cloud forest in the Cordillera de la Costa of Venezuela, in Henri Pittier National Park (Aragua) and on Cerro Naiguatá (Distrito Federal), at 1,000–1,200 m.
ETYMOLOGY:
Named in honor of Leandro Aristeguieta, a taxonomist and professor of botany at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. The Latinized epithet aristeguietae means “of Aristeguieta.”
NOTES:
1. Philodendron aristeguietae is distinguished by its ovate blade and by petioles broadly winged to the base of the blade.
2. It is similar to Philodendron venosum and Philodendron inaequilaterum, both of which have more elliptic blades. Philodendron inaequilaterum occurs only below 500 m and has interprimary veins connected by numerous cross-veins, while Philodendron venosum occurs mostly farther east, in Monagas and Sucre.
3. Type locality: Venezuela, Aragua, Henri Pittier National Park, Maracay–Choroní road at Alto de Choroní, in cloud forest, 1,200 m.
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Philodendron aristeguietae
2. Acta Botanica Venezuelica 10: 290 (1975) — protologue.
3. Croat, T.B. & Lambert, N. 1986. The Araceae of Venezuela. Aroideana 9: 3–213