RE: [Aroid-l] Philodendron 'Santa Leopoldina'

From: "Eduardo Goncalves" <edggon at hotmail.com> on 2007.02.27 at 13:31:59(15373) Dear Ted, We visited Robert Kautsky, the original collector of the nomenclatural type of P. spiritus-sancti. He gave the plant George Bunting described. We observed the cultivated specimen he still keeps on his farm (from which dry specimens were prepared) and we spotted similar material around. We have been collecting in Espirito Santo state for years and we could only found this species in Kautsky's farm. Obviously we used classic taxonomic characters to ID it, including sections on flowers. That was not that hard because there is no other species that could be REALLY confused with P. spiritus-sancti, although you can confuse many species under the popular "loose" definition of "Santa Leopoldina". Right now we are using clones of the type specimen to make a profile based on the "DNA barcode" concept, in order to make identifications of P. spiritus-sancti more reliable. Unfortunately, the "real" identity of P. "Santa Leopoldina" will be hard to find out, mainly because you can't extract DNA from an horticultural legend! Very best wishes, Eduardo. +More Dr. Eduardo G. Goncalves Universidade Catolica de Brasilia Curso de Ciencias Biologicas Sala M-206, QS 7, Lote 1, EPTC CEP 72030-170, Taguatinga ? DF, BRAZIL. Reply-To: Discussion of aroids To: Discussion of aroids Subject: [Aroid-l] Philodendron 'Santa Leopoldina' Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:33:15 -0500 All, OK. So how reliable are the reports of the remaining P. spiritu-sancti in the wild? What distinguishing marks should we be looking for? I have been looking at the pictures in the postings and they vary quite a bit. How do I know a real one when I see it? On what basis do the searchers in Brazil make their determinations? Maybe the only plants left are examples of one or another of the sham plants. Ted. _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l _________________________________________________________________ MSN Messenger: instale grátis e converse com seus amigos. http://messenger.msn.com.br _______________________________________________ Aroid-l mailing list Aroid-l@gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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