Ariopsis Nimmo

Laticifers simple, articulated. HABIT : small, seasonally dormant herbs, tuber ± subglobose, hypogeal. LEAVES : usually solitary, rarely few. PETIOLE : slender, sheath fairly short. BLADE : peltate, cordate-ovate or only emarginate basally, thin, glaucous below, posterior lobes very short; primary lateral veins pinnate and also radiating from petiole insertion, forming submarginal collective vein, marginal vein also present, higher order venation reticulate. INFLORESCENCE : 1-3 in each floral sympodium, appearing with or without leaves. PEDUNCLE : very slender, much longer than spathe, erect. SPATHE : ovate, boat-shaped, fornicate, not constricted, gaping widely, not convolute at base, marcescent. SPADIX : shorter than spathe, female zone adnate to spathe, very short and few-flowered, separated from male zone by short, free, naked axis, male zone fertile to apex, relatively thick, cylindric-conoid, many-flowered. FLOWERS : unisexual, perigone absent. MALE FLOWER : synandrium peltate, connate filaments forming a stipe longer and narrower than dilated common connective, thecae subglobose to ellipsoid, dehiscing by oval pore, synandria all connate apically, forming continuous surface punctured by cavities with somewhat prominent margins into which pollen is shed from the 6(-8) surrounding thecae (each pair of thecae belonging to a different synandrium). POLLEN : inaperturate, spherical or subspheroidal, small (mean 20 µm.), exine spinose. FEMALE FLOWER : ovary oblong, 1-locular, ovules many, orthotropous, placentae 4-6, parietal, extending from base to apex of locule, style absent, stigma stellate with 4-6-laciniate lobes, lobes initially erect, later spreading and reflexed. BERRY : 4-6-angled, stigma persistent, many-seeded. SEED : oblong, apically narrowed and obtuse, with indistinct strophiole, testa thickish, longitudinally costate, embryo axile, small, endosperm copious.