Philodendron bicolor Croat, Scherberich, M. M. Mora & G. Ferry

Hemiepiphyte to 2 m tall in cultivation; internodes 0.7-10 cm long, 0.5-1 cm in diam., medium green stained red, somewhat scabrous at first then becoming smooth, semiglossy, epidermis turning light brown and matte with age; roots semiglossy, dark brown, wiry and very long, 2-3 mm in diam., scaly, active part yellow-brown, occasionally very densely and shortly hairy; cataphylls to 21 cm long, 2.5 cm large at the base, very weakly two-ribbed, pinkish red with greenish base and conspicuously short-dark-lineate throughout, rigid and glossy, early deciduous; petioles 5.7-15 cm long, 8-14 mm in diam. at one third, erect-spreading, forming an angle of about 60° with the stem, subterete, conspicuously swollen and spongy, broadly and obtusely sulcate adaxially, flattened toward the apex and distinctly curved before geniculum, markedly bicolorous, medium to dark-green adaxially and conspicuously dark purplish violet on abaxial side, dark lineate, bearing a distinct purplish ring at the junction with the blade, drying dark yellow-brown, matte, longitudinally and irregularly folded-ridged, minutely and densely transverse-fissured; blades extending from petioles at ca. 90° angle, linear-oblong, 21-50.8 cm 3 3-7.3 cm, medium green when fresh turning dark green with age, bicolorous, semiglossy, conspicuously dark purplish violet abaxially, drying grayish brown and matte above, grayish yellow-brown and matte below; straight, slightly carinate, long-acuminate at apex, obtuse, subcordate to cordulate at base; midrib convex and medium green above, prominently raised and dark purplish violet below, more or less hemispherical in cross section, drying deeply sunken and concolorous above, thicker than broad, cinnamon-colored and acutely and irregularly ridged below; primary lateral veins 3 to 9 pairs per side, arising at about 40-55° angle, barely sunken above but distinctly raised below, drying weakly sunken and concolorous above, narrowly acute and irregular, paler below; interprimary veins few; minor veins numerous, moderately obscure, drying blackened; upper surface drying uniformly minutely and densely punctiform except on the obtusely raised minor veins; lower surface drying uniformly and densely pale-punctiform except on minor veins below; INFLORESCENCES erect-spreading, 1 per axil; peduncle ca. 8 cm long, 5-10 mm diam., uniformly light green; spathe 10 cm long, to 3 cm wide at anthesis (1-1.2 times longer than peduncles), clearly demarcated from the peduncle, barely or not at all constricted above tube, the tube yellow to greenish-yellow outside, strongly stained purplish violet at the base with a distinct pointed purplish violet marking on the back, purplish violet inside extending well onto the blade, the rest of the blade yellow to greenish-yellow; spadix protruding forward at anthesis, to 10.4 cm long, 8-9 mm diam., shortly stipitate, the stipe 8 mm in front and 5 mm in rear; pistillate portion 2.7-3 cm 3 7-8 mm, pale yellow, the staminate portion 6.3 cm long with a short 2 mm sterile portion, cylindric for the proximal 2/3 then shortly tapered, rounded to bluntly acute at apex, creamy white; ovary 6-locular; ovules 1 per locule with basal placentation, contained within translucent, gelatinous ovule sac.