Rhaphidophora lobbii Schott

Small to moderate, somewhat slender, leptocaul, homeophyllous liane to 5 m; LEAVES: seedling leafy at germination and skototropic by alternating series of congested leafy and elongated leafless shoots; pre-adult plants forming diffuse terrestrial colonies; adult shoot architecture comprised of greatly elongated, clinging, physiognomically monopodial, leafy, non-flowering stems and long moderately elaborated, free, sympodial, densely leafy, flowering stems; stems puberulent-scabrid to asperous, especially on older growth, climbing stems weakly rectangular to ± terete in cross section, free stems ± terete in cross section, often branching extensively and growing to moderate lengths pendent under their own weight, dull brown, without prophyll, cataphyll and petiolar sheath fibre, internodes to 13 x 0.6 cm on adherent and free shoots, flowering shoots with much shorter internodes, separated by weak to rather prominent, slightly oblique leaf scars, older stems woody; flagellate foraging stems absent; clasping roots sparsely arising from the nodes and internodes of clinging stems, densely pubescent; feeding roots rather rare, sometimes adherent but often free, pubescent; leaves weakly spiralled and often sparsely arranged on adherent and proximal portions of free shoots, densely spirally-distichous distally on flowering shoots; cataphylls and prophylls membranous, very quickly drying and falling; petiole grooved adaxially, 4-9.5 x 0.2-0.3 cm, smooth, with a moderate apical and prominent basal geniculum; petiolar sheath slightly prominent, extending beyond the apical geniculum by two ligules, very swiftly drying and falling in strips to leave a continuous scar from the petiole base, around the top of the apical geniculum and back to the base; lamina entire, narrowly elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate to oblong or oblanceolate, 6-24 x 2-10 cm, very softly coriaceous, upper surfaces slightly glossy, lower surfaces pale satin-matte, drying markedly discolorous, dark brown above, pale brown below, base cuneate to acute or sub-ovate, briefly decurrent, apex acute to ovate-acuminate, with a prominent apiculate tubule; mid-rib slightly raised abaxially, slightly sunken adaxially; primary venation pinnate, slightly raised abaxially, prominent (dark veins against pale lamina) in dried material; interprimaries parallel to, but much less distinctive than, primaries, very slightly raised abaxially; secondary and tertiary venation ± invisible in fresh material, barely visible in dried specimens, reticulate; INFLORESCENCE solitary, subtended by a fully developed foliage leaf and a very quickly falling cataphyll; peduncle compressed-cylindric, 1.5-5 x 0.15-0.4 cm; spathe cigar-shaped, stoutly long-beaked, 3-5 x 0.4-1 cm, thickly fleshy, exterior minutely puberulent, dull green to yellowish, swiftly falling at female receptivity to leave a substantial, slightly oblique, scar; spadix slender cylindrical, sessile, inserted level on peduncle, 3-3.5 x 0.4-0.5 cm, dull yellow-white; stylar region rather well developed, mostly rhombohexagonal, 1.9-2.4 x c.c. 2 mm, truncate; stigma punctiform, c.c. 0.3 mm diam., prominent in dried material; anthers barely exserted at anthesis, pollen extruded from between ovaries; INFRUCTESCENCE oblong-cylindric, 2.5-4 x 1-1.2 cm.