PHILODENDRON BLANCHETIANUM

PROTOLOGUE: Philodendron blanchetianum , published in Bonplandia 7: 164 (1859). The protologue is reproduced below.

DISTRIBUTION: E. Brazil: Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Translated from protologue: Petiole 5 inches long, furnished with a sheath (flowering?) more than 1½ inches long. Leaf blade obovate-oblong or oblong, 3½–4 inches wide, 10–12 inches long, rounded at the base, toward the apex more or less abruptly and arcuately narrowed, with a short cusp. Veins 6–7 on each side, openly spreading, scarcely much thicker than the very densely prominent veinlets.

INFLORESCENCE:

Translated from protologue: Spathe almost 5 inches long, very shortly cuspidate-apiculate. Spadix as long as the spathe, bearing ovaries to about the middle.

ETYMOLOGY:

Named in honor of Jacques Samuel Blanchet, the French-born botanical collector who gathered the type specimen in Bahia, Brazil, cited in the protologue as “Blanchet in Herb. D.C.” The Latinized epithet blanchetianum means “of Blanchet.”

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Philodendron blanchetianum

2. Bonplandia 7: 164 (1859) — protologue.

3. iNaturalist: Philodendron blanchetianum

Additional photos from iNaturalist by Vitor C. Dias Gonçalves, railson and Gabriel Arthur Azevedo