PHILODENDRON CAMPOSPORTOANUM

PROTOLOGUE: Philodendron camposportoanum , published in Archivos (Arquivos) do Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro 14: [269] (1956). The protologue is reproduced below.

DISTRIBUTION: S. Trop. America: Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: iNaturalist: La Paz-BO, Madre de Dios, Santa Cruz.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Translated from protologue: Stem climbing, rooting at the nodes, the internodes 20–25 cm long; petiole terete, furnished in its lower part with a sheath equalling one-third of its length, 25 cm long, 1.5 cm thick at the base, attenuate towards the apex; blade membranous, tripartite; the middle division elliptic, 22 cm long, 11 cm wide, cuspidate-acuminate, traversed on each side by 2–3 erect-spreading primary lateral veins; the lateral divisions 18 cm long, 7 cm wide, unequal-sided, 4 cm on the outer side and 3 cm wide on the inner side, obtusely attenuate at the apex, incurved, held apart by a rounded sinus, the posterior ribs not naked, the primary lateral veins ascending, 1–2 on the inner side and 4 on the outer side.

INFLORESCENCE:

Translated from protologue: Peduncle 7 cm long, 1 cm thick; spathe thick, slightly constricted, oblong-ovate, cuspidate, green outside, pale yellow within, purple at the base; spadix stipitate, the female part thick, cylindrical, 3 cm long, 2 cm thick, green, the male part elongate-conoid, yellowish-white, its sterile portion 1 cm long, the fertile portion 6 cm long, 1 cm wide, attenuate towards the apex; pistils oblong, 4 mm long, the stigmas discoid, 4-locular, the ovules in two rows almost to the apex of the locule; staminate flowers with three stamens.

ETYMOLOGY:

Named in honor of Paulo de Campos Porto (1889–1968), the Brazilian botanist who was director of the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro when the species was described, and in whose garden the type plant was grown and first flowered. The Latinized epithet camposportoanum means “of Campos Porto.”

NOTES:

1. Philodendron camposportoanum has tripartite leaves like the species of Section Tritomophyllum Schott., but is set apart from all of them by its pistillate flowers, which bear numerous ovules in two rows on an axile placenta; in the three species of that section the ovules, one to five in number, sit at the base of the locule. The species of Section Polyspermium Engl. have the same axile placentation but their leaves are ovate or oblong and entire, cordate or sagittate at the base, not tripartite. Philodendron micranthum Poepp. ex Schott., the Amazonian species of Section Baursia Reichb., likewise has a tripartite leaf, yet differs in the characteristic leaf venation and in its 6-locular pistil with one-ovuled, basal locules.

2. The type is a plant that was grown and first flowered in cultivation at the Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro (Typus RB 93 655; garden accession no. 6401). Its wild source is recorded as Xavantina, Mato Grosso, Brazil, collected by H. Sick, while the introduction to the description notes that the cultivated stock had come from Goiás.

STORY:

STORY TITLE: Mistaken for a Central American species until it first flowered

One of the Philodendron growing at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden had leaves split into three lobes, so like those of the Central American Philodendron fenzlii that, before it bloomed, the staff took it for that species. Its first inflorescence told a different story. The pistillate flowers held numerous ovules ranged in two rows on an axile placenta, whereas the three species it seemed to resemble each set only one to five ovules at the base of the ovary chamber. That single difference set it apart from all three species of Section Tritomophyllum, and G.M. Barroso described it as new in 1956, placing it in that section.²

She named it for Paulo de Campos Porto, director of the garden where the plant had been grown and had finally revealed itself. The name is tied to a living collection: the reference specimen was a cultivated accession (RB 93 655, garden number 6401), while its wild counterpart had been gathered around Xavantina, in Mato Grosso, by H. Sick.²

REFERENCES:

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

2. Archivos (Arquivos) do Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro 14: [269] (1956) — protologue.

3. iNaturalist: Philodendron camposportoanum

Additional photos by David Scherberich

Additional photos from iNaturalist by David Villalba Vargas, Igor Azevedo, Mac Grosscup, Freddy Santiago Zenteno Ruiz, Raquel Mondino, Donald Davesne, Alan Lugli, Guido Ayala and Zach DuFran