Thaumatophyllum spruceanum

Thaumatophyllum spruceanum is noted for its unusually hoop-shaped, parallel-pinnately veined, pedately divided leaves;[2] these are similar to those of the sympatric species Thaumatophyllum leal-costae.[3] Each leaf consists of 10-20 leaflets, with the central leaflet 18–50 cm long.[4]

T. spruceanum is self-heading (arborescent or tree-like) and occurs both as a terrestrial shrub in sandy soil along riverbanks and forest margins, and as a hemiepiphyte atop larger trees in dense forest.[5]

The fruit of T. spruceanum is edible and sweet, reminiscent of pineapple or banana.[5]

The specific epithet spruceanum refers to botanist Richard Spruce, credited as being the first to collect specimens of the plant from the Amazon rainforest in 1851.[6]

Thaumatophyllum was originally erected as a monotypic genus in 1859, containing only T. spruceanum.[7] The species was later moved to Philodendron in 1962 by Graziela M. Barroso, placed alongside other members of what was then the subgenus Meconostigma.[8] Molecular phylogenetics research led by Cassia Sakuragui at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro resulted in the recognition of Meconostigma as monophyletic 2018, and the subsequent resurrection of Thaumatophyllum, with Meconostigma species being placed within it.[4]

Thaumatophyllum spruceanum is native to the humid rainforest of northern Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.[1]