📷 cultivar413 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Field Guide · Philodendron
The orange-petioled climber from the Guiana Shield rewards growers who give it a pole, an airy mix, and patience for its seasonal flush.
Described by Tom Croat in 1995 from material collected in French Guiana, billietiae is the benchmark for orange-petioled philodendrons. Mature leaves elongate to 60–90 cm, with rippled margins and a deep emerald blade set against tangerine cataphylls. It climbs slowly until it finds bark or sphagnum, then accelerates. Expect a quiet winter and a hard flush of two or three leaves in late spring.
The benchmarkThe rest of this story is for subscribers. One Leaf People subscription unlocks every Understory feature and Field Guide — in the app and here on the web.
The Field Guide from Leaf People.