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Araceae
Philodendron wilburii Croat & Grayum
SUMMARY
Usually hemiepiphytic, sometimes terrestrial; stem scandent, semiglossy, sap watery, spicy-scented, sometimes milky-white; internodes usually long, glossy to semiglossy, 3--15 cm long, 1.3--2 cm diam., usually longer than broad, dark green to gray-green, sometimes drying black, epidermis often cracking or minutely fissured, brittle, sometimes silver-gray; cataphylls soft, 7--26 cm long, unribbed to bluntly or sharply 1-ribbed, sometimes sharply D-shaped and sharply 2-ribbed, whitish or green, fleshy, glossy, deciduous. LEAVES: Petioles 16--55 cm long, 5--12 mm diam., subterete to terete, moderately spongy or moderately firm, bluntly D-shaped or obtusely flattened adaxially, surface weakly glossy to semiglossy, smooth; sheathing 6--8 cm long; blades ovate-triangular, thinly coriaceous to subcoriaceous, matte to semiglossy, weakly to moderately bicolorous, acuminate to long-acuminate at apex (the acumen more or less inrolled), cordate to sagittate at base, 17--36 cm long (averaging 26 cm), 11--31 cm wide, more or less equal in length to or longer than petiole, margins hyaline, upper surface drying brownish, dark brown, or gray-brown to green, lower surface drying light brownish green to reddish brown or yellowish brown; anterior lobe 11.5--32 cm long, 7--24 cm wide; posterior lobes somewhat spreading, rounded to obtuse, 4--14 cm long, (2.7)4.2--13.5 cm wide, directed toward base or somewhat outward; sinus hippocrepiform, parabolic to arcuate or arcuate with petiole decurrent, 1--6(8) cm deep; midrib broadly convex to shallowly sunken to flat, paler than surface above, convex, paler than surface, drying darker than surface below; basal veins 3--5 per side, with 0--1 free to base, 1--3(4) coalesced (0.7)1.3--4(7) cm; posterior rib naked for 0.5--2.6 cm, sometimes not naked, directed to the tip of the posterior lobe 1--3.5 cm distant from the lower margin of the posterior lobe; primary lateral veins (2)3--4 per side, departing midrib at a 40--60(70º) angle, more or less straight to the margins, streaked reddish below, broadly impressed to shallowly and obtusely sunken above, weakly convex and darker than surface below; minor veins moderately distinct, arising from both the midrib and primary lateral veins. INFLORESCENCES erect, 1--3(4) per axil; peduncle 3.5--29 cm long, 8--12 mm diam., medium green, glossy, faintly white-striate near apex; spathe glossy, 7.5--18 cm long, 1.4--2.2 cm diam., weakly constricted midway above the tube, 1.9--2.2 mm diam. at constriction; spathe blade creamy-white to pale green or creamy-yellow, sometimes tinged faintly reddish outside, 6--7 cm long, 2.2--3.2 cm diam., (opening 6.7--9 cm long, 3.2 cm wide), whitish (at anthesis) to creamy-yellow inside, sometimes suffused with red; resin canals orange and appearing as continuous lines at least around the throat inside; spathe tube medium to dark green and light maroon band near base, sometimes weakly to heavily tinged reddish (B & K Red-Purple 5/7.5), white-striate outside, 5--7.5 cm long, 2--3.6 cm diam., reddish to dark maroon (B & K red-purple 2/10) inside; spadix sessile; more or less tapered toward apex, 6.7--11.1 cm long, broadest at or near the base, protruding strongly or weakly out of the spathe blade at anthesis; pistillate portion weakly tapered toward both ends, light green to yellowish green, (2.5)3.4--4.3 cm long in front, 2.9--3.8 cm long in back, 7--13 mm diam. at apex, 1--14 mm diam. at middle, 1--12 mm wide at base; staminate portion 5--8.4 cm long; fertile staminate portion white or light green, 10--11 mm diam. throughout, of nearly uniform diameter throughout or broadest in upper one-third, 9--13 mm diam. at base, 10--11 mm diam. at middle, 7--9 mm diam. ca. 1 cm from apex, broadest usually at the base, narrower than the pistillate portion, narrower than the sterile portion; sterile staminate portion as broad as the pistillate portion, (pre-anthesis) white to light gray, 9--14 mm diam.; pistils 1.1--2.3(3.5) mm long, 0.7--2 mm diam.; ovary (5)6--7-locular, 0.6--1.5(2) mm long, 0.8--1.3(1.6) mm diam., with sub-basal placentation; locules 0.7--1.1(2) mm long, 0.3--0.6 mm diam.; ovule sac 0.7--0.9 mm long; ovules 1--2 per locule, 2-seriate, contained within transparent, gelatinous ovule sac, 0.3--0.5 mm long, slightly longer than funicle; funicle 0.2--0.3 mm long, (can be pulled free to base), style 0.3--1.2 mm long, 0.8--1.6 mm diam., similar to style type B; style apex flat to shallowly rounded or concave; stigma brushlike to discoid or subdiscoid, purplish violet or golden honey-colored, 1--1.5 mm diam., 0.2--0.4 mm high, covering more or less entire style apex; the androecium truncate, prismatic, margins irregularly 4--6-sided, 1--1.7 mm long, 0.7--1.5(2.7) mm diam. at apex; thecae oblong, 0.4--0.5 mm wide, more or less parallel to one another; sterile staminate flowers blunt, irregular, dense, 4--6-sided, prismatic, 1.5--2(2.5--3.3) mm long, (1.2)1.5--1.6(2) mm wide. INFRUCTECENCE: Berries pale to bright orange (white, immature); seeds yellow-orange, narrowly ellipsoid.