Schismatoglottis barbata Engl.

Very small to small terrestrial to lithophytic (?facultatively rheophytic) herb c. 8–17 cm tall. Stem very condensed, usually concealed in a mat of roots and leaf bases, c. 8 mm diam., pleionanthic. Leaves numerous, crowded, up to 20 together; petiole shorter than to exceeding the blade, 3.5–10.5 cm long, densely clothed in white (drying brown) coarse multicellular hairs to 4 mm long, sheathing in the lower 1⁄10‒1⁄8 with the sheath extended into a more or less triangular ligular portion c. 0.8–3 cm long; blade narrowly obovate, 3.5–11 cm long × 1.3–4 cm wide, dark green adaxially, paler abaxially, the base narrowly rounded to truncate, the apex acute to slightly acuminate for c. 8 mm; adaxial side glabrous to sparsely pubescent, the margin not ciliate, the abaxial side densely hairy on the midrib (at least at the base), the rest glabrous or more usually hairy on the primary and secondary veins but not on the lamina in between; midrib slightly prominent abaxially, with 3–7 primary lateral veins on each side, alternating with lesser interprimaries and diverging at 30–45°; secondary venation adaxially rather obscure, arising mainly from the midrib, with a few from the bases of the primary veins; tertiary venation forming an indistinct tessellate reticulum abaxially. Inflorescence solitary; peduncle glabrous, very short, completely concealed by leaf bases. Spathe 2.5–4 cm long, more or less narrowly elliptic, unconstricted, green to greenish pink, only the apical c. 1⁄5 deciduous, the persistent part about equalling the entire spadix. Spadix c. 2–2.6 cm long, more or less cylindric but slightly constricted at the sterile interstice, sessile; female zone 5–8 mm long and wide, dorsally adnate to the spathe for more than half its length; interpistillar staminodes absent, but some sterile ovaries present at the base of the female zone; pistils more or less subglobose (somewhat rhomboid from above), close packed, rather large, c. 0.9 mm diam.; stigmas sessile, more or less rhomboid-discoid, as wide as the ovary, centrally impressed; sterile interstice c. 3 mm long, on the dorsal side of the spadix confluent with the appendix, composed of flat-topped irregularly polygonal staminodes c. 1 mm diam.; male zone c. 5 × 5 mm, formed of a patch of fertile stamens on the ventral face of the spadix completely surrounded by staminodes of the interstice and appendix; stamens with the connective bifid and extended slightly above the thecae, ?or truncate (see Notes) c. 0.5 mm diam.; appendix composed of staminodes similar to those of the sterile interstice, tapering to a blunt point.