Rhodospatha Poepp.

Appressed epiphytic climber or sometimes terrestrial, rooting at the nodes; juvenile plants terrestrial, with long internodes; preadult plants with increasingly longer internodes; adult plants with internodes short, unbranched to branched; terrestrial plants with the STEMS reclining in age. LEAVES spiral or distichous, erect-spreading; petioles about equaling the blades, amplexicaule at base, sheathed throughout much of their length, geniculate at apex; the sheath persistent or deciduous; blades oblong to oblong-elliptic, typically drying dark, rarely pale green, slightly unequal at the base, sometimes slightly inequilateral; midrib sunken above, prominently raised below; primary lateral veins numerous, usually closely spaced, spreading nearly straight or slightly arcuate to the margins, lacking collective veins; interprimary veins numerous, typically much less conspicuous than primary lateral veins. INFLORESCENCE erect, much shorter than the leaves; peduncle short, longer or shorter than the spathe; spathe broadly ovate or oblong-ovate, abruptly cuspidate, moderately coriaceous, longitudinally veined, typically white or pink, soon deciduous; spadix sessile or stipitate, cylindroid, slightly tapered toward apex or toward both ends, densely many-flowered. Flowers naked, perfect or rarely with only pistillate flowers at the base, arranged in a series of spirals; stamens 4, the filaments broad, complanate, narrowed to the slender, acuminate connective; anthers rather broad, the thecae ellipsoid, longer than the connective, dehiscent by lateral slits; ovary 4-angled, 2-celled, the ovules several or numerous per cell, amphitropous; style thicker than the ovary, the stigma usually slit-like with or without a weakly raised rim, persisting in fruit. INFRUCTESCENCES with berries small, cylindric-prismatic, truncate, usually not colorful, 10-12 seeded; seeds attached by short funicles, ventrically imbricate, rounded-reniform, lentiform, the testa minutely verruculose.