Thaumatophyllum xanadu
The xanadu philodendron (Thaumatophyllum xanadu) is a kind of tree philodendron with an upright progress behavior that units it other than the vining sorts.
Although it might probably develop tall with a considerable trunk, it is going to nonetheless behave as an epiphyte, clinging and climbing into any close by timber, making it a secondary hemiepiphyte.
The identify “xanadu” conjures visions of an idyllic paradise, someplace luxurious to flee to, and also you higher imagine after I first heard of this explicit philodendron, photos of a plant befitting utopia stuffed my thoughts.
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And since my concept of heaven doesn’t contain fussy crops that by no means look wholesome regardless of my greatest efforts, xanadu has a everlasting dwelling in my houseplant assortment.
On this information, we’ll show you how to make your xanadu philodendron look as stately and dramatic as everyone knows they’ll.
Right here’s what we’re going to speak about to make that occur:
Stately xanadu was initially referred to as ‘Winterbourn.’
It was named for Veronica and Barry Winterbourn who patented the plant in 1988. So far as we all know, it was first bought by an Australian Nursery, Home of Crops, in 1983.
It was patented in the US underneath the identify Xanadu™, however the patent has since expired. You’ll additionally see it bought underneath the identify ‘Aussie.’ Or it is likely to be misspelled as “Zanadu.”
The historical past of the xanadu philodendron is wild. It’s prefer it appeared in industrial commerce out of nowhere someday and everybody had a concept as to the place it got here from.
Fast Look
Frequent identify(s): Xanadu philodendron
Plant sort: Epiphytic aroid
Hardiness (USDA Zone): September 11 (outdoor)
Native to: Brazil
Bloom time / season: Evergreen, flowers in spring
Publicity: Partial, dappled shade; vibrant, oblique gentle
Soil sort: Unfastened, gentle, nicely draining
Soil pH: 5.5-6.5, barely acidic
Time to maturity: 10 years
Mature dimension: 5 ft broad x 5 ft excessive (relying on cultivar)
Greatest makes use of: Hanging plant, houseplant, specimen
Taxonomy
Order: Alismatales
Household: Araceae
Genus: Thaumatophyllum
Species: Xanadu
Some botanists believed it was a cultivar, sport, or hybrid of the tree philodendron, Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum (syn. Philodendron bipinnatifidum).
Others say it’s a just lately found species from Australia.
The latter are flawed, because it’s not a local species from Australia. We all know that there aren’t any indigenous Philodendron or Thaumatophyllum species there.
There are additionally gardeners who’ve been rising xanadu philodendrons from seed from crops collected from the wild in Brazil.
Like different members of the Thaumatophyllum genus, it most probably originated in South America.
In 2018, the Philodendron subgenus Meconostigma was reclassified as its personal genus, Thaumatophyllum. This plant was assigned its personal species: xanadu.
Tree philodendrons (T. bipinnatifidum) and xanadu look extraordinarily related. Solely consultants and severe hobbyists can inform the distinction.
For instance, the petioles of xanadu have a cupped, c-shape. On bipinnatifidum, they lack the cup.
Massive, deeply-lobed shiny inexperienced leaves emerge from a large central stalk which may develop as much as 4 ft tall.
At maturity, the xanadu philodendrons will usually attain about 5 ft broad in cultivation. Wild specimens can attain virtually double these dimensions.
When grown as a houseplant it’ll usually keep lots smaller except you repot recurrently into bigger containers and supply numerous vibrant daylight.
In USDA Hardiness Zones 9 to 11 you’ll be able to develop it outdoor and in spring it’ll bloom with a white spadix and spathe, adopted by seeds in the summertime. Indoors, the plant is unlikely to flower.
Xanadu makes a flexible houseplant both in a small ornamental pot to maintain it petite or gracing a big entranceway in a sturdy urn.
You’ll be able to even develop it in a dangling container, the place it appears tremendous cool, although don’t anticipate it to weep.
Enjoyable truth: Xanadu is a shade reference for an off-gray shade on the RGB scale. It has a shade coordinate of #738678, and it was named for this plant.
There’s one other tree philodendron referred to as ‘Xanadu-II’ which has bigger and extra deeply lobed leaves, nevertheless it has by no means gained the recognition of its guardian.
The way to Develop
Protecting xanadu completely satisfied is sort of simple, supplied you give it the situations the plant requires.
Let’s begin with rising medium.
Rising Medium
Aroids like xanadu philodendron want a chunky, unfastened potting medium with water retentive properties.
For those who’re rising indoors in a pot, I’d suggest you buy an aroid combine formulated for most of these crops.
Molly’s Aroid Combine is an efficient selection. It’s made up of bark, coco coir, worm castings for vitamins, biochar, and clay pebbles.
Molly’s Aroid Combine
You could find five-quart baggage accessible from Very Crops by way of Amazon.
Or in the event you favor to make your personal, mix 4 components orchid bark, two components perlite, one half coconut coir, and one half worm castings.
Open air, amend your soil with loads of coconut coir and bark, in order that it’s unfastened and ethereal.
You can too develop xanadu hooked up to a tree or different help. That is tougher to do indoors due to the quantity of area it requires.
However if you wish to go this route, connect the roots utilizing twine or glue – or each. Then, affix sphagnum moss over the roots.
You’ll have to preserve the moss persistently moist always.
Gentle
Develop xanadu in vibrant, oblique gentle or morning daylight.
Direct daylight isn’t essentially a nasty factor, as long as it isn’t for various hours within the morning or some dappled gentle all through the day.
Offering loads of gentle will assist the xanadu philodendron develop giant and bushy.
Open air, a part-shade location works greatest. For those who’re rising in a sunny spot, ensure you present some safety throughout highly regarded intervals.
Water
Maintain the soil evenly moist always. It ought to persistently really feel like a well-wrung-out sponge and will by no means be allowed to dry out.
You need to cut back the quantity of water in the course of the winter and permit the floor of the soil to dry out between watering.
It’s exhausting to say how typically you’ll have to water, since how rapidly the soil dries out will fluctuate with environmental situations.
Both use your finger or a moisture meter to test the soil each few days.
Temperature and Humidity
Xanadu likes it good and heat. Of their pure atmosphere, they have a tendency to thrive when the temperatures are within the low 80s.
However they’ll be completely fantastic in temperatures that vary from 65 to 90°F.
You need to keep away from exposing your xanadu philodendron to something beneath 60°F, although temperatures within the 50s for brief intervals are unlikely to do extreme injury.
It would kill off the foliage however the roots will seemingly survive as long as the temperatures return to regular pretty rapidly.
Xanadu grows in tropical rainforests so the crops are used to plenty and many humidity. However they aren’t too fussy in regards to the decrease humidity present in most houses.
For those who can preserve the humidity to about 50 %, that’s excellent. If you must increase humidity, you’ll be able to at all times preserve your plant within the kitchen or lavatory, or use a small humidifier.
Fertilizing
For vigorous progress, feed your plant as soon as every week or each different week utilizing a gentle, balanced, or all-purpose meals.
For those who’re searching for concepts, Arber makes a pleasant all-purpose choice made out of rooster manure, biochar, and natural compost. It’s the product I take advantage of for all my aroids.
Arber All Objective Fertilizer
You’ll be able to choose up three-pound baggage at Arbico Organics.
Scale back feeding to as soon as a month in the course of the winter months.
The place to Purchase
You could find xanadu at numerous completely different retailers as a result of it’s such a preferred plant. You’re not going to need to hunt too exhausting to search out it.
Xanadu Philodendron
For those who’d like to start out with one thing small, snag a dwell plant in a one-quart container from Nature Hills Nursery.
For those who’d like one thing a bit older and bigger, you will discover a specimen in a 10-inch pot from the American Plant Change by way of Amazon.
Upkeep
Xanadu is a “self-heading” sort, which is a time period that philo lovers use to explain sorts with stiff, inflexible stems that type a type of trunk permitting the plant to develop upright quite than as a climbing or trailing selection like heartleaf or ‘Brasil.’
Left to their very own gadgets, finally they could develop into so giant that they’ll’t help themselves.
That is the purpose when, within the wild, they’d connect themselves to a tree to proceed their lifecycle.
The decrease leaves will shed naturally, leaving a naked stem.
Pruning
You don’t have to prune these crops except any of the leaves die, develop into diseased or discolored, or there’s a damaged or deformed leaf you wish to ditch.
To do that, sanitize a pair of pruners in isopropyl alcohol, a ten % bleach resolution, or sizzling soapy water and lower the leaf off on the base near the stem.
You’ll be able to be taught all the small print about pruning philodendrons right here.
Repotting
Because the plant grows, you’ll have to repot it into a bigger container. You’ll have to take away the unique plant and brush away the soil earlier than putting it in a brand new, bigger container.
Select a pot only one dimension up from the present one. Take away the plant from its container, and gently loosen up the roots and brush away the surplus soil.
Set the plant within the new container, and gently fill in across the roots with potting medium.
Water, add extra medium if it settles, and also you’re good to go.
Our information to repotting tree philodendrons has extra particulars.
Propagation
You’ll be able to develop xanadu from seeds in the event you can acquire entry to them, however that’s a severe problem.
As a substitute, we’ll give attention to the extra generally accessible choices of taking stem cuttings, air layering, offsets, and transplanting a bought plant.
You can too separate offsets, however these don’t type and develop into viable for planting till the plant has developed a trunk.
From Stem Cuttings
To take a stem reducing, search for a wholesome stem that’s a minimum of the diameter of your thumb and has a number of leaves. It ought to ideally have some aerial roots growing.
Seize a pair of sterilized pruners and fill a four- to six-inch container with aroid potting combine.
Reduce a four- to six-inch size about an inch beneath a leaf or root node at a slight angle.
Take away all however one leaf and dip the lower finish in rooting hormone. Make a gap within the potting combine and insert the reducing an inch or two deep, sufficient that it might probably stay upright.
Agency the soil up round it. Moisten the medium.
Transfer the container to a spot with vibrant, oblique gentle. Maintain the soil moist always whereas it roots.
It would take a month or two, however finally, the plant will begin to develop new leaves and stems. That’s when you already know your reducing has taken and roots are growing.
By Air Layering
Aroids develop aerial roots and we will harness these for propagation. Search for a department with an aerial root node.
Place a stick subsequent to the department you’re going to propagate. This may help the department because it grows.
Take some sphagnum moss and moisten it. Wrap this across the node and canopy it in clear plastic. Safe this moss and plastic to the help stick utilizing tape or twine.
All you must do now could be preserve the moss moist and watch for roots to develop. Whenever you see a mass of roots forming within the moss, it’s able to go.
Take away the plastic cowl and moss, and lower the plant just under the roots.
Plant this in a brand new container or spot outdoors. The container ought to solely be barely bigger than the basis mass.
From Offsets
When the plant is mature and has developed a trunk, it is going to begin to type offsets.
These look completely different from newly-developing leaves, as a result of they may have their very own central stem and several other small leaves.
Offsets develop from the underground portion of the meristem. All you must do is dig down together with your fingers alongside the stem till you discover the purpose the place the offset joins the principle stem.
Take a knife or pruners and gently lower this away, taking any roots hooked up in the event you can.
Plant the offset in its personal small pot.
Managing Pests and Illness
Xanadu is one robust cookie. In a gaggle of buddies, this could be the one which by no means cries, walks it off after they break a bone, and may deal with just about any problem.
Mealybugs, scale, and spider mites will all feed on xanadu philodendrons, however they normally received’t trigger a lot injury. Yellowing foliage and a few decreased progress are the principle signs.
Mealybugs and scale can resemble the signs of a illness, since these pests are pretty flat and so they don’t transfer as soon as they hunker in and begin feeding.
You may see fantastic webbing on the plant if spider mites are round, however the arachnids themselves are so tiny that they’re not likely seen.
In any other case, root rot is your greatest concern. Root rot is a typical downside for houseplant growers, basically. Study stop, establish, and management root rot right here.
Welcome to Paradise
If your personal private paradise entails numerous fairly tropical crops, it is best to completely embrace stately, elegant, eye-catching xanadu.
Are you rising xanadu philodendrons? Tell us what you like about this plant within the feedback part beneath.
If in case you have a hankering to be taught extra about philodendrons, we’ve got a number of different guides to maintain you busy. Examine these out: