Philodendron Schott

Appressed hemiepiphytic climbers or vines, less frequently terrestrial, rarely true epiphytes; sap usually tanniniferous, drying dark, rarely with latex, drying white; caudices densely rooted at nodes; juvenile plants usually terrestrial and scandent, the petioles conspicuously sheathed; adult plants with intenodes short to elongate, sometimes flattened on one side; cataphylls unribbed or variously ribbed, persistent or deciduous, remaining intact or more usually weathered to fibers; petioles short or more usually elongate, usually sheathed only at base (except sect. Pteromischum), variously shaped in cross-section, firm or spongy; blades simple and entire, ovate to oblong or elliptic or variously divided, trisect, palmatisect or pinnatifid; midrib raised or sunken above, raised below; primary lateral veins conspicuous, spreading to the margins, not forming collective veins, the lowermost primary lateral veins often coalesced on cordate blades, the posterior rib, naked with the sinus or not; interprimary veins sometime present; minor veins conspicuous or obscure, usually fine and closely parallel; cross-veins sometimes visible; laticifers sometimes appearing like veins; INFLORESCENCES 1-several per axil, much shotter than the leaves; peduncles shorter or longer than the spathe; spathe convolute at base, persistent, usually coriaceous, frequently colorful, often bicolorous on outside, less frequently so within, typically somewhat constricted above the tube, opening widely at anthesis, then reclosing and persisting in fruit; spadix divided into pistillate and staminate portions, each with unisexual flowers; pistillate portion basal, usually much shorter than the staminate portion, usually greenish; staminate portion clavate, white, usually somewhat constricted above the sterile staminate portion (at base). Flowers naked, closely aggregated in several spirals; staminate flowers consisting of 2-6 sessile stamens united into a synandrium truncate at apex and usually irregularly 4-5-sided; thecae oblong or linear, emarginate at the base, each opening by short slits; pistils ovoid to obovoid, 2-several-celled; ovules 1 to several to numerous per locule, orthotropous or half anatropous, ascending on moderately long funicles; stigma sessile, funnel-shaped or bmsh-like and hemispherical to lobulate. INFRUCTESCENCES with berries cylindroid, exposed by the reopening of the spathe; seeds few to many per berry, oblong to elipsoid or ovoid-oblong; the testa rather thick, striate-costate; endosperm present. Species ca. 700,