Re: Philodendron santa leopoldina

From: Denis denis at skg.com> on 2001.11.07 at 20:49:12(7773) Dear John: I am in possession of a piece of the above described plant left to the International Aroid Society by Betty Waterbury. Over the years that I have held it, the plant has managed to make one top cutting per year. The society sells either the base section which grows a new top or the top cutting which we root. There has beenn dicussion of Tissue culturing this plant but I have been reluctant to do so as I thought there were better clones of this species out there that had better color. It is not the most vigorous plant out there, and I am not sure if we were able to put a piece in culture that it would number 1, survive to multiply in vitro and number 2, whether it would be vigorous enough to survive explanting to soil media. It would be a challenge. I will ask my friend, Randy Strode of Agristarts inc. if he would be willing to help us should we decide we want to do this thing. How much are you willing to spend on this project. This the top cutting sold for $750. at the IAS Auction. We would have to forgo selling next year's piece to be able to propagate it in TC as the process of harvesting the explant may kill the plant. Denis +More john s. smolowe wrote: > > In his recent Aroidiana article on Philodendron spiritus-sancti, aka > Philodendron santa leopoldina (the rare, desirable variety) Eduardo > Goncalves suggests the species be made widely available by > micropropagation. I emailed him and he wrote back: > > "I am just aware that there are no more > than 5 known plants of P. spiritus-sancti in the wild. It can be > considered > almost extinct in the wild. I would love to see it being > micropropagated, > because it will remain as an amazing plant, even if it was being sold > at > K-Mart! Unfortunately, I do not have the facilities here, and I also > do not > have a living plant of it myself. That collected plant were donated to > a > private conservatory that has the proper infra-structure to grow it. > Well, I think there are > more plants of P. spiritus-sancti in the US than in Brazil (even > considering > the wild specimens!)." > > I'd be interested in contributing to a fund to make that happen. Does > anyone know the practical details? I suppose we'd have to find and > deal with an appropriate lab, and also find a willing owner of the > correct plant. > > John Smolowe > Menlo Park, CA

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