Caladium schomburgkii Schott
Schott, H.W 1858. Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr. 8:122.

Caladium schomburgkii is native to the "Guianas and adjacent Venezuela." (Madison, 1981). " This species was also observed growing in old cans, etc., at the homes of ... residents of Vega de Oropouche [Trinidad, West Indes]..., [but] . . .we were unable to convince their owners to show us the plants of this species growing in the wild. Their owners insisted that their plants were collected in nearby cocoa and coffee fields...." (Boos & Boos, 1981).

This species is considerably different from the other species of the genus. The leaves are more or less ovate, they lack posterior lobes, the leaves are not peltate, and the margin of the blade is often crispate (ruffled). This species is sometimes used as a parent for hybridization.

Two somewhat different forms of plants are called C. schomburgkii. One form has a more or less lanceolate blade, and the blade has small cup-like structures on either side of the petiole. This form is similar to C. venosum and C. rubescens (Brown, 1893) and will be referred to as the cucullate form. The second form has a blade that is more ovate and lacks the cup-like structures at the base of the blade and will be referred to as the non-cucullate form.

The cucullate form of C. schomburgkii is probably in the pedigree of some of the strap-leafed cultivars of C. x hortulanium. Note the shape of the blades and the cucullate bases of these cultivars.


Click on the picture or the name below it to go to the page for that collection.


Cucullate Form

'Irish Lace'

Rubescens


Non-cucullate Form

'Changjur'

Dewey Fisk

N.E. Trinidad

 Back