ABSTRACT:

In 1983, not far from Quibdo´ , near the R?´o Atrato, Dr. Croat found a patch of forest that was especially rich in aroids. After visiting the same place for two days he had by no means exhausted its potential for aroids of interest. This lightly forested area had been harvested, but not destroyed, by woodsmen in previous years, and here Dr. Croat found one of the most exciting aroids known from the Choco´ : an undescribed species of Philodendron. It remained ‘‘known’’ in the sense that its existence was recognized by a few people; many years would pass before it was formally described and published. The species was actually first collected by Dr. Alwyn Gentry and Enrique Reneteria in 1979 (no. 24115), but the specimen had remained unnamed in the herbarium. Closely associated with the progress towards being named was the successful introduction of this plant to cultivation and its subsequent propagation by seed.