Arophyton rhizomatosum (Buchet) Bogner

Perennial herb; rhizome creeping (tuberous in young plants) reaching 4 cm in length and ca. 1 cm diameter; leaves few, usually only 1-2, more rarely 3-4, appearing simultaneously with inflorescences. LEAVES: Cataphylls ca. 4-6.5 x 1.5cm, green or slightly reddish, desiccating later. Petiole cylindrical, 15-36 cm long, green or slightly tainted red or a little mottled; sheath short, ca. 3cm long. Leaf blade ovate, cordate to hastate at base, cuspidate at the apex, dark green on the upper surface, paler underneath, the shape is very variable, usually hastate, the anterior lobe often slightly narrowed at the base; leaves usually ± cordate in juvenile plants, sometimes lobes at the base more developed and, sometimes even, leaves incompletely tripartite, sometimes leaves completely tripartite with all the transitions between these shapes; leaf lobe 14-30 x 12-24 cm; in the hastate leaves the lower lobe is 5-11 cm; in the tripartite leaves the middle segment is always bigger, broadly elliptic, cuspidate, 9-10 x 5.5-6 cm, the 2 lateral segments spreading horizontally, 6-7 x 2.3-5 cm, sometimes somewhat assymmetric; midrib and the 2 lateral veins in each, prominent below; 4-6 primary lateral veins on each side; collective veins, 0.4-0.7 cm from the edge of the leaf. INFLORESCENCE: Peduncle 7-20 cm long, green. Spathe ± narrowly elliptic, cuspidate, a little longer than the spadix, slightly narrowed between the male and female zones of the spadix, 5.5-8 x 2.5-3 cm, rolled in a tube at the base, the upper part spreading, the exterior green-whitish to yellowish or greenish, the interior the part surrounding the female zone of the spadix is purple, on top equally green-whitish to yellowish or greenish with small reddish spots. Spadix entirely free, cylindrical or slightly claviform, 4.5-5.5 cm long and ca. 0.5 cm diameter, pale purple, with an appendix; male zone 2.5-3 cm long, female zone 0.5-1.5 cm long; appendix ca. 1 cm long, ± grooved; synandriums gradually more sparse towards the appendix; male and female zones directly superposed, with often bisexual flowers in the transition zone; bisexual flowers much resembling female flowers with the edge of the synandrium bearing one or several thecae, or resembling male flowers with a pistil coming out of the slit of the synandrium. Stamens of the male flowers joined into a ± elliptic and often irregular shaped synandrium, purple, flat, with a narrow slit in the centre, 2.2-5 x 1-1.2 mm; 6-10 thecae scattered on the upper edge in a little hollow; thecae ca. 0.5 mm diameter, yellowish, dehiscing via a pore; sometimes thecae joined and forming at the time of dehiscence an elongated slit, sometimes dehiscing by a curved and elongated slit (Perrier de la bathie 15548); upper synandriums having fewer thecae, as few as 1, and passing through a transition to the irregularly shaped synandrodiums, transforming into the appendix with a ± smooth and round apex. Male flowers ca. 1.5 x 1.5 mm, sometimes ± rhombic veiwed from above; pistil surrounded by a uroceolate synandrodium, pale orange; edge of the synandrodium rolled towards the centre, only appearing to leave a 1 mm opening through which the style and stigma come out; ovary ellipsoid, pale green; style very short, pale green; ovule ellipsoid ca. 1.3 x 0.7 mm; funicle short; stigma disc shaped, ca 0.5-0.8 mm diameter, purple, a little concave in the centre, with papillae. INFRUCTESCENCE: Berries ellipsoid, ca. 0.4-0.3 cm (at maturity?); vestiges of stigma present. Number of chromosomes 2n=38