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Araceae
Schismatoglottis asperata Engl.
SUMMARY
Herb to c. 40 cm tall. Stem condensed, suberect, becoming epigeal, to c. 1.5 cm diam., pleionanthic, sometimes red internally; internodes not conspicuous. Leaves few together (c. 4); petiole 7–19(–43) cm long, c. ½ the length of to exceeding the blade, sheathing in the lower (¼–) ⅓–⅔, more or less asperous and glistening owing to being variably clothed in short stiff minute hairs, and/or these borne on small, approx. hemispherical to elongate tubercles, narrowly alate on each side on the adaxial face, the wing usually crisped; wings of sheath attached to petiole throughout or almost so, broad and subparallel (then free-auriculate at the top for c. 0.5–1 cm) to tapering and then not apically auriculate; blade obovate to ovate to broadly oblong-ovate, rather leathery to subsucculent, 14–26(–32) cm long × 7–17(–21) cm wide, pale bluish green and sometimes adaxially variegated with two longitudinal zones of irregular greenish white blotches, or greenish white between the primary veins, paler abaxially, the base acute (and finally very narrowly truncate) to more or less narrowly cordate and sometimes slightly hastate, the tip acute to obtuse and then apiculate for c. 1 cm; midrib not prominent on either surface (dry), broad, adaxially with the vascular bundles of the primary lateral veins individually conspicuous throughout; primary lateral veins 6–8 on each side, alternating with lesser interprimaries (inconspicuous in thick-leaved forms), diverging at c. 60°; secondary venation almost all arising from the midrib; tertiary venation indistinct, especially in thick-leaved forms. Inflorescence solitary, rarely two together, subtended by one or more broad cataphylls; peduncle short, not exserted from leaf bases (but see Notes). Spathe 6–13 cm long, subcylindric, tapering; lower spathe 1.5–3 cm long, ovoid, green, differentiated from the limb by a weak constriction corresponding with the upper part of the fertile male zone; limb 4.5–10 cm long, lanceolate, white, crumbling-deliquescent, fragile. Spadix sessile, shorter than the spathe, to 9 cm long; female zone 0.7–1.5 cm long, with oblique to shortly adnate (to spathe) insertion, 0.5–1 cm diam. at base, faintly conoid; pistils crowded, squat mushroom-shaped, c. 1 mm diam.; stigma sessile, discoid to irregularly polygonal, centrally impressed, papillate, wider than ovary and contiguous with neighbouring stigmas; interpistillar staminodes few, scattered among the pistils, slightly shorter to slightly taller than the pistils, c. 0.5 mm diam.; sterile interstice c. 1–3 mm long, isodiametric with top of female and base of male zones, 1–3 whorls of irregularly polygonal sterile stamens c. 1 mm diam., interspersed with a few interpistillar staminodes; male zone 0.8–1.5 mm long, cylindric, slightly attenuate at top; stamens white, turning orange after anthesis, crowded, truncate with the thick connective slightly elevated above the thecae, more or less rectangular to triangular from above; pollen extruded in strands; appendix white, about twice the length of the rest of the spadix, widest shortly above the base and there somewhat wider than male zone, then gradually tapering to a narrow blunt tip; staminodes of appendix more or less flat-topped, irregularly polygonal, c. 1 mm diam., crowded (fresh), tending to clump into groups of c. 10 on drying. Fruiting spathe broadly urceolate, c. 3 cm long.