PHILODENDRON BURLE-MARXII
PROTOLOGUE: Philodendron burle-marxii , published in Archivos (Arquivos) do Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro 15: 93 (1957). The protologue is reproduced below.
DISTRIBUTION: Colombia to Ecuador and N. Brazil: Brazil North, Colombia, Ecuador.
ETYMOLOGY:
Named in honor of Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994), the Brazilian landscape architect and plantsman who collected the plant in Amazonas and cultivated the Brazilian aroids the author was able to study in the living state, to whom the species is dedicated. The Latinized epithet burle-marxii means “of Burle Marx.”
NOTES:
1. Allied to Philodendron wittianum Engl., from which it differs in the shape of the leaf, the dimensions of the petiole and spathe, and the stipitate spadix.
2. Growers separate Philodendron burle-marxii from the plant known as Philodendron ‘Burle-Marx’s Fantasy’. Philodendron burle-marxii has strap-shaped leaves that stick out from alternating sides of the stem, while ‘Burle-Marx’s Fantasy’ has elongated heart-shaped leaves that overlap like shingles.⁴,⁵
3. On the Aroid-L mailing list in December 2001, Eduardo G. Gonçalves called Philodendron burle-marxii a hard-to-find species that grows in the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Acre. He had found it in Acre and likewise described its leaves as strap-like.⁶
4. A plant circulated as Philodendron burle-marxii and also as Philodendron ‘Burle Marx Fantasy’ was not Philodendron burle-marxii, according to Tom Croat, who described the true species as having somewhat strap-shaped leaves. He did not know the other plant and said it had not been published.⁷
STORY:
STORY TITLE: A homage to Roberto Burle Marx
Graziela Maciel Barroso ended her 1957 description with a dedication to Roberto Burle Marx, thanking him for the opportunity to study Brazil’s living aroids in vivo.² The Brazilian landscape architect and plantsman had collected the plant in Amazonas, and it was growing at the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro, under accession number 6804, when Barroso examined it there. Barroso also cited a second gathering, made by the collector Krukoff near Livramento, close to Humaitá in the same state.²
Barroso placed the new species close to Philodendron wittianum, distinguishing it by the shape of the leaf, the dimensions of the petiole and spathe, and by a stalked, stipitate spadix. Its name, burle-marxii, honors the man whose collection and cultivation of the plant made that description possible.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Philodendron burle-marxii
2. Archivos (Arquivos) do Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro 15: 93 (1957) — protologue.
3. iNaturalist: Philodendron burle-marxii
4. Aroid-L mailing list, Neil Crafter, May 31st, 2000
5. Aroid-L mailing list, Hermine, May 31st, 2000
6. Aroid-L mailing list, Eduardo G. Gonçalves, December 28th, 2001
7. Aroid-L mailing list, Tom Croat, April 21st, 2008
Additional photos by David Scherberich