Rhaphidophora decursiva
Deciduous herb to 1.3 m tall. Subterranean stem a subglobose, stoloniferous tuber, up to 4 cm across and 2 cm high, white, with stolons to 10 × 1 cm. Pseudostem ca 20 cm long, green, mottled grey and pink. Leaf solitary, exceptionally bifoliate; cataphylls to 20 cm long, purple; petiole to 1 m long, similar in colour to the pseudostem; leaf blade radiate; leaflets 7–11, ovate, 10–20 × 4–6 cm, margins entire, apex acute, ending in an acumen 1 cm long, base cuneate and sessile, leaflets plain green, with impressed veins above, underside paler. Inflorescence held below the foliage; peduncle 5–20 cm long, green and pink mottled; spathe tube cylindrical, 4–6 × 1–1.2 cm, green with thin white stripes, spathe mouth margins recurved; spathe limb lanceolate, 5–8 × 3–4 cm, green, flushed red-brown, ending in a long brown tail to 25 cm long; spadix appendix well exserted from the tube, 5–6 cm long × 3–4 mm wide, pale green, stout, cylindrical, ending in a rounded and rugose apex curving forward; sessile, pistillate inflorescences with green bristles above the fertile part; fertile zone staminate or pistillate, cylindrical, 1.5–2 cm long; staminate flowers loosely arranged; pistillate flowers densely arranged; ovaries bottle-shaped, green; stigma sessile, penicillate, white. Infructescence on an erect peduncle, globose, 3–5 cm; fruits red-orange when ripe, 8–10 × 5–7 mm, top rounded, up to 3 seeds per berry. Seeds globose, 3–4 mm diam.
Nepal and NE India (type & types of Rhaphidophora affinis, R. eximia, & R. insignis) through Bangladesh and Thailand to SW China, Vietnam and Laos.
Subtropical and warm temperate mixed upper hill to lower montane broad-leaf forest. 350–1800 m asl.
Notes. — Rhaphidophora decursiva is most similar to R. glauca but can be distinguished by its more massive size, by the larger leaves (100 × 50 cm vs. 42 × 24 cm) that are glossy pale green beneath, (vs. glaucous), the leaf divisions reaching the midrib in adult plants such that each pinna is separated from the next by a naked sinus along the midrib, and the larger spadix (15–16 cm vs. 4.5–8.5 cm).