Philodendron 

Philodendron, 12×9″, watercolor  on 140# HP paper 

If you are a philodendron, the Tropic of Capricorn is where you want to live, not in the upper latitudes clinging to life in an office planter, overwatered, underfed, starved for daylight.

Here the size and variety of this species is vast. Plants which are scrawny potted slips in the US are as big as a house in Brasil, co-habiting with even bigger plants as they climb, coil and wind skyward. Their closed pods are the size of a liter Thermos bottle. When the pod (blossom) opens it reveals a huge ivory anther. After fertilization the blossom closes. Why? I don’t know, yet. I walk past this philodendron daily and always look to see what’s new.

Philodendron Pods

Philodendron Leaves and Pods