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Araceae
Rhaphidophora spathacea Schott
SUMMARY
Moderately robust, medium-sized pachycaul, homeophyllous liane to 15 m; seedling stage not observed; pre-adult plants forming scattered terrestrial colonies; adult shoot architecture comprised of clinging, physiognomically unbranched, LEAVES: densely leafy flowering stems; stems smooth, mid-green, with cataphylls and prophylls persistent and drying dark yellow, then degrading into fibres and parchment-like remains, internodes 1-6 x 0.4-1.5 cm, separated by prominent slightly oblique leaf scars; flagellate foraging stem absent; clasping roots densely arising from the nodes and internodes, smooth and drying with parchment-like epidermis; feeding roots not observed; leaves spiro-distichous to distichous; cataphylls and prophylls chartaceous, later degrading into strips of tissue and fibres, especially at tips of flowering shoots; petiole deeply canaliculate, 8-53 x 0.4-0.8 cm, smooth with faint to rather prominent dark dense speckling, apical geniculum prominent, basal geniculum slightly less so; petiolar sheath extending to apical geniculum, broad, chartaceous, short-persistent, degrading to sparse fibres and papery strips, then falling; lamina entire, ovate-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, slightly oblique, 11-35 x 2.5-18 cm, chartaceous to coriaceous, base rounded to acute, apex acute to acuminate; midrib prominently raised abaxially, ± flush adaxially; primary venation pinnate, raised abaxially, less so adaxially; interprimaries sub-parallel to primaries, slightly to much less prominent than the primaries, slightly raised abaxially, barely visible adaxially; secondary venation reticulate, raised, especially conspicuous in dry material; tertiary venation minutely reticulate, hardly visible; INFLORESCENCE two, three or more together, each subtended by a prominent chartaceous prophyll and one or more chartaceous cataphylls, the entire synflorescence emerging from a mass of dried, chartaceous cataphyll remains; peduncle slender to stout, terete, partially to completely obscured by cataphylls, 4-12 x 0.2-0.8 cm; spathe slender canoe-shaped, hardly to stoutly beaked, 5-13.5 x 2-2.5 cm, stiff-fleshy, lower 0.7-1 cm with connate margins (fide Nicolson 1580, but not observed elsewhere), yellow to yellow green, marcescent to early fruiting, eventually falling leaving a prominent scar; spadix stoutly cylindrical, sessile, inserted almost level on peduncle, 3-16.5 x 1-1.5 cm, white at male anthesis; stylar region conical, mostly hexagonal in top view, 0.9-1.2 x 1-1.1 mm; stigma punctiform, very prominently raised, those at the tip of the spadix even more raised, 0.1-0.2 x c. 0.3 mm, glossy and almost black in dried material; anthers exserted at male anthesis; INFRUCTESCENCE stoutly oblong-cylindrical, 6-9 x 1.4-2 cm.