Philodendron placidum Schott

Hemiepiphytic appressed climber spiraling around the tree trunk several times below ca. 5 m, where it branches and spreads before flowering. Internodes 3-5 cm long (to 16 cm on younger stems), 4-6 rnm diam., matte, dark green, becoming gray, sharply flattened on one side, drying pale yellow-brown with close, slender ridges, smooth but obscurely and densely granular-puberulent at 30 x. LEAVES: Petioles 6.5- 11 cm long, sheathed throughout, the sheath 9-1 5 mm wide, glossy, spreading, truncate to emarginate at apex, drying reddish brown. Blades 12-31 cm long, 5-12.7 cm wide, oblong-elliptic or rarely elliptic, markedly inequilateral (one side l .5-2.7 cm narrower), abruptly acuminate at apex, narrowly and inequilaterally rounded at base, subcoriaceous, glossy on both surfaces, moderately bicolorous, drying grayish above, yellowish brown beneath. Midrib weakly sunken above, convex below, often drying undulate. Primary lateral veins 7-10, weakly sunken above, weakly raised below, drying paler than surface, arising at ca. 30º angle on the narrow side, at ca. 45º on the broader side, weakly arcuate to the margin. Minor veins drying moderately distinct below. INFLORESCENCE 1 per axil. Peduncle 1-2 cm long, drying 4-6 mm diam. Spathe 9.5-12.5 cm long, barely constricted above the tube, the tube pale green, the blade white, caudate-acuminate at apex (the acumen to 2 cm long), with reddish brown resin droplets on inner surface, becoming greenish throughout after anthesis, with the upper 3 cm of the spadix remaining open after anthesis and with the post-anthesis spadix remaining exserted 1-2.5 cm, the entire spathe drying reddish brown after anthesis. Spadix 9.5-1 1.5 cm long, the staminate portion narrowly long-tapered, to 6 mm diam.