Arophyton crassifolium (Buchet) Bogner

Perennial herb with a period of dormancy for several months during the dry season; tuber globose, flattened; 2.5-4.5 x 1.2 cm, pale brown. LEAVES1-2(-3) appearing at the same time as 2-3 inflorescences. Cataphylls reaching 12 cm long, membranous, ± reddish, withering later. Petiole 20-40 x 0.3-0.6 cm, greenish-grey, usually slightly tainted with red; sheath of the leaf 4-13 cm long. Leaf blade ovate, cordate to sagittate at the base, cuspidate at the apex, glaucous and somewhat grayish on the upper side, green below, coriaceous 8-16 x 5-11cm, posterior leaf lobes relatively short, obtuse or rounded and ± widely separated from one another, but sometimes very slightly developed; midrib very thick; 4-6 primary lateral veins on each side; the inner collective veins have a distance of 5-8 mm from the edge of the leaf and are more developed than the outer ones, which are weaker and only 1-2 mm from the edge. INFLORESCENCE: Peduncle, 10-12 x 0.2-0.4 cm, green, slightly tainted red. Spathe ± linear, acuminate, 9-13 x 1.5-1.9 cm, not reflexed, longer that the spadix, the lower part rolled into a tube, the top part spreading; external face greenish with vertical red lines, a little darker in the lower part, green internally. Spathe persistent during fruiting. Spadix 5-9 cm long; male zone 1-3.5 cm long progressively attenuating into a slender appendix 2.5-5.5 x 0.2-0.4 cm, slightly obtuse, purple; female zone 1-3 cm long, joined laterally with the spathe; male and female zones directly superposed, sometimes only 1 or few sterile flowers between them. Stamens joined into a synandrium, arranged in a scattered manner, the remaining axis is visible; synandrium very flat (ca. 0.5 mm high), elliptic, usually not hollowed at the centre, rarely with a very narrow slit towards the centre, of 1.5-3 x 1-1.5 mm, purple; 4-10 thecae densely grouped on the top side; towards the appendix synandriums have fewer longer, irregular thecae, and pregressively more sparse towards the appendix; thecae ellipsoid, dehiscing via a slit; pollen yellow. Female flowers ca.1.5 x 1.2 mm; pistil surrounded to nearly halfway by an urceolate synandrium, purple; the side of the synandrium covered in sparse papillae; ovary globose, ± greenish towards the base, ± purple towards the top; ovule globose, funicle very short and thick; style very short, purple; stigma discoid, ca.0.5 mm diameter, whitish. INFRUCTESCENCE: Berries ± fusiform ca. 1 x 0.5 cm, red when fresh. Seeds without endosperm; embryo elliptic, plumule subapical. Number of chromosomes 2n = 54