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Araceae
Rhaphidophora microspadix K.Krause
SUMMARY
Small, very slender, leptocaul, homeophyllous (?) liane to unknown ultimate height; seedling and pre-adult plants not observed; LEAVES: adult shoots comprised of greatly elongated, clinging, physiognomically unbranched, leafy, non-flowering stems and long, free, sympodial, leafy flowering stems; stems smooth, somewhat flexuous, stems terete in cross-section, branching little, growing to considerable lengths and pendent with flowering tips upturned, without prophyll, cataphyll and petiolar sheath fibre, internodes to 4 x c. 0.2 cm, separated by weak slightly oblique leaf scars, older stems woody; flagellate foraging stems absent; clasping roots arising singly from each node; feeding roots not observed; leaves weakly distichous and sparsely arranged; cataphylls and prophylls membranous, caducous; petiole deeply grooved adaxially, 2-5 x 0.15-0.25 cm, smooth, with a slight apical and basal geniculum; petiolar sheath slightly prominent, extending to the apical geniculum, caducous in strips leaving a slender scar; lamina entire, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate falcate, 4-19 x 1-3 cm, thinly coriaceous, drying adaxially dull mid-brown, abaxially paler brown with dense, well-defined to somewhat obscure tannin cells, base cuneate, apex long-acuminate with a slender prominent tubule; midrib slightly raised abaxially and adaxially; primary venation pinnate, very slightly raised on both surfaces; interprimaries sub-parallel to, but much less distinctive than, primaries, sometimes degrading into weakly reticulate venation, very slightly raised abaxially; secondary venation ± invisible in dried specimens, parallel-reticulate; INFLORESCENCE solitary, subtended by a fully developed foliage leaf and a caducous cataphyll; peduncle compressed-terete, 3-7.3 x 0.2-0.25 cm; spathe ovoid-ellipsoid, stoutly long-beaked and tipped with a fine tubule, 2.5-3 x 0.7-0.9 cm, marcescent until early fruiting, then falling leaving a large, oblique scar; spadix ovoid-globose to ovoid-cylindrical, sessile, inserted slightly obliquely on peduncle, 1-1.5 x 0.5-0.6 cm; stylar region rhombohexagonal, 1.4-2 x c. 2 mm, truncate; stigma punctiform, c. 0.4 mm diam., prominent in dried material; anthers well-exserted at male anthesis; INFRUCTESCENCE ovoid-globose, c. 1.2-2.5 x 1-1.5 cm.