Philonotion Schott

Evergreen terrestrial mesophytic or para-rheophytic herbs with pleionanthic or hapaxanthic shoots. Stem hypogeal or epigeal, erect to creeping. Leaves few to many; petiole terete; petiolar sheath fully attached, from 2/5 to 1/2 of the petiole length; lamina oblong to ovate, basally cuneate, ovate to cordate, apex often caudate and usually with a tubular mucro; primary venation pinnate, running to margin and there forming a prominent marginal vein, secondary venation parallelpinnate; tertiary venation reticulate. Inflorescences solitary or in a 2-flowered synflorescence; peduncle exceeding the petioles; spathe constricted at junction of the lower part and limb, coinciding with a partially naked insterice and/or zone of sterile male flowers on the spadix, lower spathe tightly convolute, persistent into fruiting, limb caducous (always?) during anthesis; spadix sessile, flowers unisexual, aperigoniate; female flower zone partly adnate to the lower spathe; pistils crowded, distally sometimes interspersed with clavate interpistillar pistillodes, these exceeding the pistils; stigma discoid to hemispherical; ovary unilocular, placentae 1–2, parietal; ovules 1–2 per placenta, fusiform; sterile interstice with staminodes proximally, naked distally; male flower zone attenuate, stamens crowded, not obviously arranged into male flowers; anthers truncate; thecae each opening an apical pore; appendix absent. Fruiting spathe urceolate; fruit berry; seeds 2–4, globose to ellipsoid, longitudinally costate.