Ripeness of Philodendron infructescences

**T* W* <t*@uni-oldenburg.de>**

Dear All,

I'm going to collect infructescences of various Araceae species in
Panama and thought that you could give me some tips on how I determine
their ripeness. Especially in Philodendron I have no clue how to know
beforehand if seeds are already mature enough to germinate (eventually I
want to conduct germination experiments with them).

To give you an example, I attach some images of Philodendron fruits and
maybe you can tell me if you would consider them ripe. As I came to
understand, it may take quite a while for them to ripen. There are very
few fruiting Philodendron individuals in the field, so I would like to
know without having to open them.

I have read that infructescences would crack partly open or smell
fragrant. But that is probably true for certain species only. Can you
give me any good characteristics of ripe fruits?

Any help is highly appreciated!

Thank you so much,
Tizian