Araceae
Aridarum burttii Bogner & Nicolson
SUMMARY
Small herb 20-30 cm tall. Stem condensed, suberect, to c. 4 cm long, 1.5 cm diam. Leaves several together; petiole 4-17 cm long, 1.5-3 mm diam., sheathing at the extreme base, the wings extended into a very narrowly triangular ligular portion to 6 cm long; blade coriaceous, very narrowly elliptic to elliptic, 6-12 cm long × 1.2-4 cm wide, adaxially glossy dark green, paler abaxially, the base cuneate, the apex acute, shortly acuminate and apiculate for 0.5-0.8 mm; midrib abaxially and adaxially prominent with 3-4 abaxially and adaxially prominent primary lateral veins on each side, diverging at c. 30°; secondary and tertiary venation more or less obscure. Inflorescence solitary; peduncle usually much exceeding the petioles, 10-20 cm long; spathe broadly ovate, not constricted, c. 4-5 cm long, green and persistent at the extreme base, the rest white, gaping and caducous after anthesis, apiculate for up to 0.8 cm. Spadix subcylindric, c. 3 cm long, c. 0.6 cm diam.; female zone c. 1 cm long; pistils subglobose, c. 1 mm diam.; stigma subsessile, discoid, papillose, about as wide as the ovary; interpistillar staminodes absent; sterile interstice composed of an irregular whorl of sterile anthers; male zone c. 2 cm long, terminating in a few sterile or vestigial stamens; stamens more or less round, large, c. 3 mm diam., not arranged into male flowers, centrally impressed with irregularly flared margins, the thecae displaced to the proximal (with respect to the spadix axis) side with distal-pointing (with respect to the spadix axis) horns. Fruiting spathe broadly conic, c. 1 cm diam., subtending a more or less hemispheric cluster of berries; berries globular 3-4 mm diam., crowned with old stigma remnants, many-seeded; seed c. 2 mm long, 0.6-0.7 mm diam., narrowly ellipsoid, dark brown, slightly longitudinally ribbed, with a long curved translucent micropylar appendage 1.2-1.5 mm long, the appendages intertwined in the upper part of the berry.