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Araceae
Rhaphidophora hayi P.C.Boyce & Bogner
SUMMARY
Moderate-sized, slender to somewhat robust, semi-leptocaul, homeophyllous neotenic liane to 5 m; seedling stage a non-skototropic shingling juvenile shoot; pre-adult plants forming small terrestrial colonies; LEAVES: adult shoot architecture comprised of clinging, physiognomically unbranched, mostly densely leafy, sterile stems and abbreviated, free, flowering stems; stems rectangular to terete in cross-section, widest side prominently convex, smooth, dark green, without prophyll and cataphyll fibre but with very thin, adherent, petiolar sheath tissue, internodes to 8 x 1 cm, separated by slight ± straight scars, older stems sub-woody; flagellate foraging stems weakly developed, usually at least partially leafy and mostly replaced by short, readily disarticulating free side shoots functioning as vegetative propagation units; clasping roots arising from the internodes, prominently pubescent; feeding roots c. 3 mm diam., brown, minutely pubescent, sparsely lenticellate; leaves distichous, shingling and ascending on adherent shoots, densely arranged or slightly scattered on free shoots, scattered leaves with internodes between carrying a prominent cataphyll of short duration; cataphylls and prophylls membranous, caducous; petiole deeply grooved, 1-2 x 0.2-0.3 cm, smooth, apical and basal genicula barely visible; petiolar sheath prominent, caducous but adhering to stem, membranous, ligulate, margins of ligule fused, the ligule extending up to 3 cm above base of lamina and enclosing shoot apex; lamina broadly to narrowly ovate-elliptic, coriaceous, base truncate to cuneate or cordate (the last not on flowering shoots), and briefly decurrent, apex acute with a tiny tubule; midrib prominently raised abaxially, slightly raised adaxially; primary venation densely pinnate, slightly raised abaxially, somewhat impressed adaxially; interprimaries sub-parallel to primaries, slightly raised on both leaf surfaces; secondary venation reticulate, slightly raised abaxially, ± flush adaxially; INFLORESCENCE solitary, subtended by a membranous, caducous prophyll and one or more similar cataphylls; peduncle slightly laterally compressed, 2-3 x 0.6-1 cm; spathe canoe-shaped, stoutly beaked, 5.5-8 x 2-4 cm, stiffly fleshy, yellow, gaping wide at female anthesis and then slowly falling leaving a large scar at the base of the spadix; spadix stoutly cigar-shaped, shortly stipitate, inserted ± level on stipe, 3.5-6 x 1-1.2 cm, yellow; stipe 4-6 x 3-3.5 mm; stylar region weakly developed, mostly irregularly rhombohexagonal, 1.1-1.3 x 1-1.1 mm, truncate; stigma prominently raised, elongated, longitudinally orientated, c. 0.3-0.5 x 0.2-0.4 mm; anthers not exserted at male anthesis; INFRUCTESCENCE not seen.