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Araceae
Schismatoglottis hottae Bogner & Nicolson
SUMMARY
Small lithophytic herb to 17 cm tall. Stem very condensed and short, c. 3 cm long × 1 cm diam., clothed in old leaf remains, pleionanthic. Leaves several together (4–7) with roots emerging from among their bases; petiole 5–9 cm long, slender, about equalling the blade, very densely clothed in minute straight pale brown hairs, sheathing only at the extreme base with the sheath extended into a narrowly triangular abaxially pubescent bicarinate ligular portion 2–4 cm long; blade ovate to broadly ovate, matte dark green, slightly metallic and densely minutely hairy throughout adaxially, matte pale green, densely minutely hairy on all the venation and minutely tuberculate between the veins abaxially, drying dark brown, 9–12 cm long × 7–9 cm wide, the base retuse to cordate with rounded posterior lobes to 2 cm long, the apex broadly acute to obtuse and shortly apiculate; midrib not or hardly prominent abaxially and adaxially; primary lateral veins crowded, c. 13 on each side of the midrib, diverging at 45–60°, alternating with lesser interprimaries and very occasionally branching near the midrib, impressed adaxially, prominent abaxially; secondary veins abaxially prominent (due to hairs), arising from the midrib and the bases of the primary veins; tertiary venation obscure. Inflorescence solitary; peduncle very short, completely concealed within subtending leaf bases. Spathe c. 3.5 cm long, green to salmon pink and then veined with deeper pink; lower spathe ovoid, c. 1.1 cm long, differentiated from the limb by a slight constriction; limb 2.2–2.8 cm long, broadly lanceolate, apiculate for 2–3 mm, ?deciduous. Spadix 2.5 cm long, sessile; female zone obliquely inserted, c. 3 mm long; pistils densely packed; ovary subglobose, c. 1 mm diam.; stigma sessile, thickly discoid, almost as wide as the ovary; sterile interstice slightly wider than male and female zones, 2 mm long, c. 3 whorls of flat-topped irregularly polygonal staminodes c. 0.6 mm diam.; male zone cylindric, slightly attenuate corresponding to spathe constriction, c. 3 mm long; stamens somewhat laxly arranged, mostly in adnate pairs with the bluntly and narrowly pyramidal connective extended beyond the thecae; appendix cylindric-ellipsoid, more than half the length of the spadix, about twice the width of the male zone, c. 2 cm long × 6 mm thick, composed of flat-topped irregularly polygonal staminodes c. 1 mm diam. Infructescence unknown.