Thaumatophyllum Explained

Thaumatophyllum (formerly Meconostigma) is a genus of flowering plants in the arum family, Araceae. Its species are native to northern (tropical) South America.

Taxonomy

The genus Thaumatophyllum was erected by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott in 1859, with the sole species Thaumatophyllum spruceanum. In 1962, G.M. Barroso transferred T. spruceanum to Philodendron. (However, the transfer was not made correctly and Barroso's name Philodendron spruceanum is illegitimate.) While in Philodendron, T. spruceanum was placed, along with other species, in subgenus Meconostigma. A series of molecular phylogenetic studies, particularly from 2008 onwards, suggested that, when broadly circumscribed, Philodendron was not monophyletic. In 2018, it was proposed that subgenus Meconostigma should be raised to the rank of genus, under the name Thaumatophyllum. The proposal has been accepted by Plants of the World Online, among other taxonomic databases.

The generic epithet Thaumatophyllum comes from Ancient Greek Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: θαυμα ("miracle") + Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: φύλλον ("leaf").

Phylogeny

Relationships among the former subgenera of Philodendron and related genera are not yet fully resolved. Several studies that have produced a resolved tree suggest that relationships may be of the form:

Species

, Plants of the World Online accepted the following species:

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Thaumatophyllum".

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