RE: [Aroid-l] Anthurium regale and the Issue of Botanical Specimens

**&* B* <j*@msn.com>**

From : 	<ted.held@us.henkel.com>

Reply-To : 	Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Sent : 	Friday, March 2, 2007 1:58 PM
To : 	Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
Subject : 	[Aroid-l] Anthurium regale and the Issue of Botanical Specimens

Dear Ted,

I have a LITTLE knowledge that I will share with us friends, as I was

blessed to do some work with the late Lynn Hannon who was Tom Croat`s 'right

hand man' during his extensive collecting jaunts in Ecuador. She always

told me that an infloresence SHOULD always be collected when it was at male

anthesis, as this way it generally was at its peak of development.

Steve`s invaluable observations, documented on film for ONE Anthurium

species has demonstrated how different, at least in its colors, one spadix

can be during its LONG development, from a yellow color to ivory to purple.

Tom Croat has commented on how very valuable to Scientists this

documentation is proving to be, and for the future I GUESS all a colloctor

will be able to do is make a note something like "specimen seemingly before

male anthesis', or 'specimen post-male anthesis" etc. on wild-collected

specimens.

I`m certain that all observations on home-grown, DOCUMENTED wild collected

plants would be welcomed by Scientists like Dr. Croat at MOBOT.

I hope that these comments are helpful.

Julius

Have you folks been following Steve Lucas's developing story about the

Anthurium regale bloom? The point that interests me here the most is the

morphological and color changes that this inflorescence has displayed

over the LONG bloom process.

What happens if a scientifically-minded collector happens upon such a plant

in the early stages of bloom? Let's assume she secures a specimen and

describes it with perfect accuracy. Later, another collector makes a hike

into the same area, finds an exact clone of the first specimen in bloom, but

at a maturation date six weeks later than was available to the first

collector, when the inflorescence is a completely different color and when

all the little "naughty bits" have morphed.

How does the taxonomist know that the two plants are the same?

It seems to this untrained observer that only a painstaking record such as

that on Steve's site would be adequate to describe a species and avoid the

ambiguity.

Here is the address in case you have not seen it yet:<<

http://www.exoticrainforest.com/Anthurium%20regale%20spathe%20page%205%20pc.html

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