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Araceae
Rhaphidophora versteegii Engl. & K.Krause
SUMMARY
Robust, large, pachycaul, heterophyllous liane to 20 m; seedling stage not observed; pre-adult plants shingling; adult shoot architecture comprised of clinging, physiognomically unbranched, densely leafy flowering stems; stems smooth, mid-green, with cataphylls and prophylls persistent and drying dark yellow, degrading into parchment-like remains, internodes 1-4 x 0.4-2.5 cm, separated by very 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 distichous; cataphylls and prophylls chartaceous, degrading into strips of tissue and weak fibres at tips of flowering shoots; petiole deeply canaliculate, 8-48 x 0.4-0.8 cm, smooth, with faint to rather prominent dark dense speckling, apical geniculum prominent, basal geniculum very large but not prominent; petiolar sheath extending to apical geniculum, broad, chartaceous, short-persistent, degrading to papery strips and sparse fibres, then falling; shingling lamina entire, cordiform, 2.5-7.5 x 3-6.5, chartaceous, base cordate, posterior lobes overlapping, apex obtuse and minutely apiculate; adult lamina entire to slightly or extensively perforated, perforations elliptic to rhombic, extending from c. 1/4 to entire width of lamina on each side of the midrib, lamina ovate-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate or oblong-elliptic, slightly oblique, 33-57 x 9.5-27 cm, sub-membranous, drying pale grey-green to bright green, base rounded to acute, apex acute to acuminate; midrib prominently raised abaxially, ± flush adaxially; primary venation pinnate, prominently raised abaxially, weakly so adaxially; interprimaries sub-parallel to primaries, less prominent than interprimaries, slightly raised abaxially and adaxially; secondary venation feebly reticulate to subtesselate; INFLORESCENCE very rarely solitary, usually several 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, 5-10.5 x 1-2 cm, stiff-fleshy, very thick-walled (up to 1 cm at tip), yellow to yellow green, marcescent to early fruiting, eventually falling leaving a prominent scar; spadix stoutly cylindrical, sessile, inserted almost level on peduncle, 3-9.5 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, almost black in dried material; anthers exserted at male anthesis; INFRUCTESCENCE stoutly oblong-cylindrical, 6-9 x 1.4-2 cm.