Rhaphidophora minor Hook.f.

Small to moderate, slender, leptocaul, homeophyllous liane to 6 m; seedling not observed; pre-adult plants forming diffuse terrestrial colonies; LEAVES: 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 smooth, flexuous, climbing stems ± terete, occasionally weakly 4-angled in cross section, free stems somewhat laterally compressed in cross section, often branching extensively, growing to considerable lengths and pendent under their own weight with flowering tips upturned, without prophyll, cataphyll and petiolar sheath fibre, internodes to 13 x 1.2 cm on adherent and free shoots, flowering shoots with much shorter internodes, separated by weak straight leaf scars, older stems woody; flagellate foraging stems absent; clasping roots arising sparsely or singly from the clinging stems, pubescent; feeding roots solitary from nodes, free, stout, slightly pubescent; leaves weakly distichous and sparsely arranged on adherent and proximal portions of free shoots, moderately densely distichous distally on flowering shoots; cataphylls and prophylls membranous, very quickly drying and falling; petiole grooved adaxially, 3-6 x 0.1-0.25 cm, smooth, with a slight apical and prominent basal geniculum; petiolar sheath slightly prominent, extending beyond the apical geniculum by two small 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 falcate-elliptic to falcate-lanceolate or falcate-oblanceolate, 2.5-16 x 1.2-3 cm, thinly coriaceous, drying pale straw-coloured, base cuneate to acute or sub-ovate, apex acute with a prominent tubule; mid-rib raised abaxially, slightly raised adaxially; primary venation pinnate, slightly raised on both surfaces prominent (raised)in dried material; interprimaries sub-parallel to, but much less distinctive than, primaries, sometimes degrading into weakly reticulate venation, 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, 3-4 x 0.3-0.5 cm; spathe cigar-shaped, stoutly long-beaked, 3-9 x 1-1.5 cm, thin, dull green to dull yellow, swiftly falling at female receptivity to leave a large, straight, scar; spadix slender cylindrical, sessile, inserted level on peduncle, 2.5-7 x 0.5-0.6 cm, dull yellow-white; stylar region rather well developed, mostly rhombohexagonal, 1.4-2 x c.c. 2 mm, truncate; stigma punctiform, c.c. 0.3 mm diam., slightly prominent in dried material; anthers well-exserted at anthesis; INFRUCTESCENCE oblong-cylindric, 4.5-7 x 1-2.5 cm.