Philodendron santa leopoldina

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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