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Araceae
Philodendron monsalveae Croat & D.C.Bay
SUMMARY
Hemiepiphytic; stem appressed-climbing; sap creamy yellow to light tan; internodes smooth, 2–17 x 0.5–3 cm, longer than broad, usually dark green becoming gray-green, occasionally medium green to light reddish brown or tan, epidermis sometimes slightly scurfy and somewhat transversely fissured, drying yellowish tan and flaking; roots several per node, to 33 cm x 3–4 mm (dry), drying dark reddish brown; cataphylls to 35 cm, sometimes 2-ribbed at base but more usually sharply 1-ribbed, obtuse and apiculate at apex, pale green at base, rosy toward apex with pale margins, drying pale tan with light brown mottling, deciduous. LEAVES spreading; petioles 21–33 cm x 5–8 mm (dry), obtusely sulcate at base, becoming terete midway, subterete at apex, dark to olive-green, firm, semiglossy, drying olive-green with longitudinally wrinkled, flaking epidermis; geniculum slightly swollen, to 3 cm, darker than petiole, drying medium to dark brown; blades oblong-elliptic, moderately coriaceous, acuminate at apex, attenuate to truncate at base, 35–57 x 13.5–25 cm, 2.1–2.9(–4)x longer than broad, 1.6– 1.9x longer than petiole; adaxial surface semi-glossy, dark green, often bicolorous, drying dull pale olivegreen; abaxial surface matte, paler than adaxially, drying pale olive-green or tan; midrib flat, pale white, sometimes striate adaxially, narrowly to broadly roundraised and darker abaxially; primary lateral veins 5 to 14 per side, 2.5–4 cm apart, spreading from midrib at 55º– 65º angles, acutely down-turned at midrib, proceeding straight out toward margin, becoming very weak within 1 cm of margin, sunken adaxially, convex and darker than blade abaxially, drying paler than blade adaxially, paler than blade and raised abaxially; minor veins obscure. INFLORESCENCES pendent, enclosed in persistent rosy red prophyll, 3 to 9 per axil alternating with prophylls; peduncle curved, 2–10 cm x 2–4 mm (dry), much shorter than petiole, pale olive to medium green, glossy, somewhat striate, drying dark reddish brown; spathe cherry-red, bluntly rounded, white-apiculate at apex, barely constricted above tube, 4.3– 7.5 cm; spathe blade 3–4.5 cm, cream-colored inside; spathe tube 2–3 cm, cherry-maroon outside, green becoming cherry-red to dark maroon inside, drying medium tan outside, with obvious resin lines above tube inside; spadix exserted at anthesis, tapered at apex, 4–7.7 cm; pistillate portion green to yellow-green with golden stigmas, cylindrical, 1.9–3 cm x 4.5–8 mm; staminate portion creamy white becoming yellowish brown, ellipsoid to clavate, 3–4.7 cm x 8–10 mm at widest point; sterile staminate portion ca. 0.7 x 10–11 mm, slightly paler than fertile staminate portion; pistils 0.8–1 mm diam.; ovary 5- to 6-locular, ovules with basal placentation, 1 per locule; sterile staminate flowers 2 mm, irregular. INFRUCTESCENCE unknown. JUVENILE PLANTS with narrow-elliptic, often falcate leaf blades, white cataphylls, and obscure primary lateral veins.