Tropicals & Tender Perennials: Philodendron ornatum: easy/difficult? Reclassified?, 0 by ExoticRainforest

ExoticRainforest wrote:
Oh, what a giant can of worms! Please consider, I am only the messenger. Don't shoot me if you don't like the answer. I'll gladly give you the email address for the Missouri Botanical Garden so you can shoot them.

No, Philodendron ornatum has not been reclassified. I can either write one hug bunch of gibberish (which I know I will be accused of doing anyone) or try to break it down. Hopefully the later approach is easier.

As of today there are only 35 accepted species of Monstera and all are found in Central and tropical South America. It has been some years since the last official work on the genus Monstera was done but Dr. Tom Croat of the Missouri Botanical Garden is now working on a brand new one. He tells us he expects the total number of species once the work is completed to be around 50.

Here is the big problem. There are distantly related species found in Southeast Asia that resemble the form of a Monstera and/or a Philodendron. There are no Philodendron or Monstera species found naturally in Asia! Not a one.

They are all in similar larger scientific family but the ones that resemble Monstera are in different genera. All the Monstereae are found in the genera Amydrium, Rhaphidophora, Epipremnum, Scindapsus, Alloschemone, Rhodospatha, and Stenospermation.other genera. The genus Monstera is also in the family Monstereae but is not represented in Asia. Sellers, especially on eBay, began selling these plants as "Monstera" or "Philodendron" quite a few years ago and we are now stuck with all those names, despite the fact quite a few are totally bogus. Some of the species in these unique genera are similar to a Philodendron or a Monstera but they cannot be given those names since they don't fit into the specific group (genus).

Alistair on Dave's Garden is far more experienced than am I in explaining all of this and I hope he will step in a correct any mistakes.

Now to your questions. There is no such plant as "Monstera pinnatipartita dubia" There is a Monstera pinnatipartita but it does not really look like the plant being sold with that name. There is also a Monstera dubia but it too is not commonly available.

I have been working with Emily Colletti who is the aroid green house keeper at the Missouri Botanical Garden to try to get accurate photos of their plants. We go up there about every three months and she helps me dig out specimens to try for good photos. There is a very big problem in that many of the juvenile forms of these plants look very much alike so it takes more than a casual photograph to tell them apart. The photos at this link are of the juvenile of Monstera pinnatipartita taken in their greenhouse in April of this year. at the same time I got about 5 other species and have several already posted on my website.

I fully expect some to disagree with the ID but these were taken with Emily standing right beside me and sh went up to the computer to dig out the ID numbers and then pulled the specimens from the tables by number to be certain of the ID.

http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Monstera pinnatipartita pc.h...

I know this photo is not going to look like what most of us think that species should be like and I was very much fooled myself. I showed the plant I have known as Monstera pinnatipartita to Dr. Croat at the garden and he has no idea what it might be. Mine is now approaching the adult phase and it will then be easier to ID since botanists rarely photograph or describe a juvenile. They are only interested in the adult leaf form.

All of us need to be very careful about accepting names from eBay sales as being accurate. Most sellers just resell a plant using the name they were given which is all too often very wrong.

The juvenile blade of Monstera pinnatipartita is definitely blue green in color and looks nothing like the adult plant.

Steve

This message was edited Aug 9, 2010 7:14 PM

This message was edited Aug 9, 2010 7:30 PM