Philodendron chrysocarpum (Araceae)
Usually hemiepiphytic, occasionally terrestrial; stem appressed-climbing or scandent; internodes sometimes bluntly ribbed, 0.4–4 x 0.5–3 cm, longer than wide, yellow-green to dark green, sometimes tinged purple, glossy, drying smooth, with some transverse fissures, olive-tan to red-brown to brown; roots few to several per node, highly branched, glossy, red-brown, drying smooth, red-brown to medium brown; cataphylls 14–15.5 cm, sharply 2–ribbed, long-tapered and acute at apex, medium green, tinged purple, drying reddish brown, deciduous while intact. LEAVES erect to spreading; petioles (5.3–)6.5–9.5 cm x 2–4 mm (dry), deeply sulcate so as to appear sheathed in lower 1/3–2/3, terete toward apex, obtusely flattened adaxially, medium green tinged purple or red toward apex, drying dark, red-brown to brown; geniculum marked with a narrow (1–2 mm) purple ring at the apex, drying dark brown; blades elliptic, subcoriaceous, acuminate at apex, attenuate at base, 23.5–30 x 5–9 cm, 3.4–4.8(–5.2)x longer than wide, 2.6–3.8x longer than petiole; adaxial surface moderately glossy, medium green, somewhat bicolorous, drying glossy, reddish green or reddish olive-green, abaxial surface glossy and paler than adaxially fresh and dried; midrib broadly-raised and slightly paler than blade adaxially, bluntly acute to narrowly rounded and much paler than blade or purple abaxially; primary lateral veins more than 30 per side, departing midrib at 45º, obscure on both surfaces; all other veins obscure adaxially and abaxially. INFLORESCENCES erect, 1 per axil; peduncle 2–4 cm x 5–7 mm, shorter than petiole, yellowish green to dark green, drying dark red-brown; spathe long-tapered, outside dark yellow-green, striate toward base, inside greenish white with orange resin canals to within 2 cm of the apex, drying dark red-brown, only slightly constricted where the pistillate portion of the spadix ends, 12–19 cm long; spathe blade 6–9 cm; spathe tube 6.5–10; spadix cylindrical, 8–15.5 cm; pistillate portion green turning pale yellow at anthesis, 2–6 cm x 8–10 mm (dry); staminate portion white, 6.5–9.5 cm x 8–10 mm (dry); sterile staminate portion to 2.5 cm long, narrower than other regions at anthesis; pistils 6– 11 mm diam., ovary 5-locular, ovules with basal placentation, 6 to 8 per locule; sterile staminate flowers unknown. INFRUCTESCENCE with pistillate spadix ca. 8 x 2 cm (dry), berries globular, bright golden yellow-orange with red stigmas.
IUCN Red List category. Conservation for Philodendron chrysocarpum must be considered as Least Concern (LC) according to IUCN Red List criteria (IUCN, 2001), since it is known from both Chocó and Valle departments and is common in the Bajo Calima area.
The species is a member of subgenus Philodendron, section Macrobelium, subsection Macrobelium, series Macrobelium and is characterized by its purple-tinged petioles that are sulcate in the lower 1/3 to 2/3, the narrow-elliptic blades, and midrib that is convex adaxially and often purple abaxially with other venation obscure. Also characteristic is the striated spathe that is green on both surfaces, and the golden yellow-orange fruit, hence the epithet chrysocarpum (‘‘chryso’’ meaning golden and ‘‘carp’’ meaning fruit). It is most easily confused with Philodendron coriaceum Croat & D. C. Bay, which also has elliptic blades with obscure veins, but a generally darker yellow-orange fruit. Philodendron coriaceum differs in having very coriaceous leaves 1.6–2.3(–2.6)x longer than broad, a flat midrib that is much paler adaxially and pale green abaxially, and a spathe tube that is red inside and usually also on the outside.
Philodendron chrysocarpum is endemic to Colombia and is known mostly from the western slopes of the Cordillera Occidental, Valle Department, within the Bajo Calima region, in an area of Tropical rain forest transition to Premontane (T-rf/ P), below 150 m.
Tropical rain forest transition to Premontane (T-rf/ P), below 150 m. One specimen (Juncosa 2552) was collected from Tropical wet forest (T-wf) in the department of Chocó, where it was found in disturbed forest at an elevation of 465 m. It has been collected in dense primary forest, regrowth forest, along roadsides, and growing in mangrove swamps.