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Araceae
Piptospatha perakensis (Engl.) Ridl.
SUMMARY
Rheophytic herb 10-40 cm tall. Stem short, condensed, 2-4 cm long, 0.7-1 cm diam.; roots thick, extensive and tough, 1.5-2 mm diam., with many thinner roots of second order. Leaves few to several together; petiole 6-15 cm long, 1.5-2 mm diam., canaliculate on upper side, sheathing only at the extreme base, the wings extended into a narrow ligular portion 3-7 cm long; blade coriaceous, adaxially dark mid-green, paler abaxially, elliptic (to oblong elliptic) 10-26 cm long × 1.5-7 cm wide, the base cuneate, the apex acute and shortly apiculate for 1-1.5 mm, the margin weakly to strongly crispate especially in the distal part; midrib and primary venation very prominent abaxially, drying pale orange to straw-coloured; primary lateral veins 5-8(-10) on each side of the midrib, diverging at c. 45°, running to a thick marginal vein; secondary venation distinctly finer than primaries. Inflorescence solitary (sometimes 2-3 in series but alternating with foliage leaves); peduncle erect, 3-16 cm long. Spathenodding at anthesis, narrowly ovoid, c. 3 cm long, apically beaked for c. 4 mm, cream to greenish, the upper part caducous. Spadix c. 2 cm long, shortly stipitate with the stipe adnate to the spathe; female zone subcylindric, c. 0.7 cm long × 0.5 cm diam.; pistils more or less ovoid, c. 0.5 mm diam.; stigma sessile, thickly discoid, about as broad as the ovary (dry), papillate, not contiguous with neighbouring stigmas (dry); interpistillar staminodes confined to a small group or irregular whorl at the base of the female zone, stipitate, flat-topped, about as high as the pistils, c. 0.5 mm diam.; sterile interstice absent; male zone fertile to apex, bluntly ellipsoid-subcylindric, c. 1 × 0.5 cm; stamens truncate, more or less flat-topped (somewhat rounded), narrowly rectangular-elliptic from above, mostly in closely appressed pairs, the anther finely and densely pubescent, c. 0.8 mm across. Fruiting spathe obconic, green; berries yellowish when ripe, in a more or less hemispherical group c. 1.5 cm diam., obovoid, 2.2-2.4 mm long × 1.5 mm diam., with persistent stigma remnant apically; seeds several, subcylindric, c. 1-1.2 mm long; testa slightly ribbed, brown, with a prominently curved micropylar appendage.