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Araceae
Rhaphidophora discolor Engl. & K.Krause
SUMMARY
Medium-sized, robust, pachycaul, homeophyllous (?) liane to 25 m; seedling stage and pre-adult plants not observed; LEAVES: adult shoot architecture not fully observed but apparently comprised of elongated, clinging, physiognomically unbranched, non-flowering stems and free, sympodial, leafy flowering stems; stems smooth, cataphylls and prophylls caducous, internodes 1-3 x 0.5-1 cm, separated by wide but not especially prominent slightly oblique corky leaf scars; flagellate foraging stem, clasping roots and feeding roots not observed; leaves distichous to very weakly spiro-distichous; cataphylls and prophylls caducous; petiole deeply canaliculate, 17-37 x 0.4-1 cm, apical geniculum prominent, basal geniculum large but weakly defined; petiolar sheath prominent, extending to apical geniculum, slowly degrading to chartaceous strips and a very few simple fibres, then falling leaving a pale scar; lamina entire, ovate to oblong-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, slightly oblique, 18-47 x 9-16 cm, coriaceous, base rounded to oblique and very weakly cordate on one side and slightly decurrent on the other, apex acute to briefly acuminate, drying adaxially dull olive-green and abaxially dark brown in the one known collection; midrib prominently raised abaxially, sunken adaxially; primary venation pinnate, raised abaxially and adaxially; interprimaries sub-parallel to primaries, only slightly less prominent, slightly raised abaxially and adaxially; secondary venation reticulate, slightly raised abaxially and adaxially in dry specimens; INFLORESCENCE solitary, subtended by a fully developed foliage leaf; peduncle stout, terete, 9-10 x 1.7-2 cm; spathe canoe-shaped, stoutly acuminate, 20-23 x 2.5-2.5 cm, stiffly very fleshy, marcescent, eventually falling leaving a very large (c. 1.5 cm wide) scar; spadix cylindrical to slightly cigar-shaped, slightly curved, long-stipitate, inserted more or less level on stipe, 13.5-19 x 2.2-4 cm; stipe slender-terete, 1.5-3 x 0.4-1.5 cm; stylar region rhombohexagonal, 1.75-2.5 x 1.5-3 mm, truncate with a raised rim; stigma punctiform, flat, c. 0.4 mm diam.; anthers not exserted at male anthesis; INFRUCTESCENCE cylindrical, c. 17 x 2 cm (known from fragments).