Nephthytis Schott

HABIT : evergreen, rarely seasonally dormant, small to medium-sized herbs, rhizome creeping, subepigeal, rarely hypogeal, slender to thick, internodes very short, rarely long. LEAVES : several, rarely solitary. PETIOLE : geniculate apically (geniculum very long in N. bintuluensis), usually smooth, rarely sparsely aculeate, uniformly green, sheath very short. BLADE : cordate-sagittate to sagittate-trifid or subtriangular, posterior divisions usually longer than anterior, all three divisions often long-acuminate; basal ribs usually well-developed, primary lateral veins of both anterior and posterior divisions pinnate forming submarginal collective vein, higher order venation reticulate. INFLORESCENCE : solitary, usually flowering with leaves, rarely without (N. bintuluensis). PEDUNCLE : usually relatively slender, shorter or equalling petiole. SPATHE : ovate- to oblong-elliptic, fully expanded, reflexed at anthesis, not constricted, decurrent on peduncle, green, persistent or marcescent. SPADIX : short- to long-stipitate, cylindric, female zone contiguous with male, rarely with a few sterile flowers in between, male zone longer than female, fertile to apex. FLOWERS : unisexual, perigone absent. MALE FLOWER : 2-4-androus, stamens obpyramidal, filament thick, well developed (except N. hallaei, N. mayombensis), connective thick, thecae lateral, anterior dehiscing by apical pore. POLLEN : presented in amorphous mass, inaperturate, ellipsoid to subsphaeroidal, medium-sized (mean 46 µm.), exine verrucate. FEMALE FLOWER : ovary ovoid, 1-locular, ovule 1, anatropous, funicle very short, placenta basal, stylar region shortly attenuate or inconspicuous, stigma discoid-hemispheric. BERRY : large, subglobose to ellipsoid, orange, pericarp thick. SEED : obovoid or subglobose to ellipsoid, smooth, testa absent at maturity, embryo large, outer cell layers with chlorophyll, endosperm absent.