Schismatoglottis lingua A.Hay

Herb to 65 cm tall. Stem condensed, clump-forming, hypogeal, hapaxanthic, c. 1.5 cm thick. Leaves 2–3 together; petiole 27–50 cm long, sheathing in the lower ¼–⅓, held very erect; wings of sheath broad, tapering and apically narrowly truncate, fully attached to the petiole, overlapping and more or less forming a pseudostem; blade oblong-lanceolate, c. 30 cm long × 7 cm wide, dark to mid-green and slightly glossy adaxially, paler abaxially, the base shortly cordate to auriculate, the apex acute and slightly acuminate; midrib somewhat prominent in the lower part abaxially (dry; prominent throughout abaxially when fresh), adaxially flush with the lamina to slightly raised; primary lateral veins c. 10 on each side of the midrib alternating with lesser interprimaries and diverging at c. 60–90°, when widely diverging then somewhat abruptly ascending to join the margin; secondary venation mostly arising from the midrib, some from the base of the primary veins; tertiary venation indistinct. Inflorescence solitary; peduncle more than half the length of the petiole, 18–25 cm long. Spathe 9–11 cm long; lower spathe green, narrowly ovoid, 4–5.5 cm long, differentiated from the limb by a distinct constriction; limb broadly ovate, 5–6.5 cm long, pale green, inflated over the appendix and then acuminate for 1.5 cm, caducous. Spadix sessile, 6.5–8.5 cm long, hourglass-shaped; female zone 3.5–5 cm long, adnate to the spathe in the lower ½, 4–6 mm diam. in the middle, attenuate distally to c. 2 mm diam.; pistils subglobose to somewhat columnar, basally more or less crowded, distally lax to very lax, c. 1 mm diam.; stigma sessile, discoid, somewhat narrower than the ovary, c. 0.6 mm across, papillate; interpistillar staminodes scattered among the pistils, stipitate, clavate with flat tops, about twice the height of the ovaries, c. 0.6 mm across; sterile interstice ill-defined, mostly naked with a few ?abortive pistils to mainly covered in pistils squashed by the spathe constriction; male zone obconic, c. 1.7 cm long, c. 3 mm wide at the base, 8 mm wide at the top; stamens crowded, c. 0.5 mm across, hourglassshaped, the connective thin and not elevated above the thecae; thecae with slightly elevated rims cut at the outer edge by a narrow slit; appendix hemispheric to squatcylindric and apically broadly obtuse, at the base slightly but abruptly wider than the top of the male zone, 1–1.5 cm long × 0.9–1.2 cm diam.; staminodes of appendix whitish, columnar, flat-topped and irregularly polygonal with rounded edges, 0.5–1 cm diam. Fruiting spathe narrowly urceolate, to 5 cm long.