You are here
Araceae
Schismatoglottis nervosa Ridl.
SUMMARY
Rather robust herb to 50 cm tall, with somewhat pungently aromatic vegetative tissues. Stem epigeal, suberect to decumbent and then rooting on contact with ground, to c. 40 cm long × 1.5-4 cm thick; internodes to 2 cm long. Leaves few together (to c. 6); petiole 13-30 cm long, strongly longitudinally ridged (like celery) especially abaxially at the base, very minutely (strong lens required) and densely verruculate, sheathing in the lower ?-½ with the wings tapering and fully attached; blade broadly ovate to oblong ovate, adaxially mid- to dark green and somewhat glossy, slightly bullate, 12-21 cm long × 6-10 cm wide, the base broadly rounded to slightly retuse, the tip broadly acute and shortly acuminate for c. 1 cm; midrib abaxially very prominent (Bau specimens; not so at Gunung Gading - see Notes), adaxially flush with the lamina and centrally channelled; primary lateral veins abaxially prominent (Bau specimens; not so at Gunung Gading), numerous, 16-25 on each side of the midrib, alternating with lesser interprimaries or these occasionally arising on the bases of the primary veins, diverging at 60-90° and gradually curving towards the tip before reaching the margin; secondary veins mostly arising from the midrib, occasionally from near the bases of the primary veins; tertiary venation forming a faint tessellate reticulum abaxially. Inflorescences 1-3 together, subtended by lanceolate cataphylls to 6 cm long; peduncle short, concealed by leaf bases and cataphylls at flowering, slightly exserted in fruit. Spathe subcylindric, c. 5.5 cm long, pale green; lower spathe c. 1.2 cm long, differentiated from the limb by a faint constriction; limb oblong-lanceolate, c. 4.3 cm long, mucronate for 5 mm, deciduous. Spadix sessile, subcylindric, subequalling the spathe; female zone more or less cylindric, 1.2 cm long × 3 mm thick; pistils very numerous and close-packed, irregularly rhomboid from above, c. 0.5 mm across; stigma sessile, minute, punctate; interpistillar staminodes confined to more or less a single ring at the base of the female zone, squat-columnar, irregularly polygonal from above, about the same size as the ovaries; sterile interstice absent (?or reduced to a whorl of incompletely abortive stamens); male zone contiguous with female zone or separated by a very short naked zone c. 2 mm long, cylindric, 1.4-1.8 cm long, 2 mm diam.; stamens close-packed, anthers truncate, the connective narrow and the thecae large, the whole butterfly-shaped from above and neighbouring anthers with their lobes interdigitating; pores impressed, C-shaped with the convex side innermost, the rims narrowly alate; appendix subcylindric, distally tapering to a blunt point, basally very slightly thicker than the male zone, 1.5-1.8 cm long; staminodes of appendix densely packed, flat-topped to slightly impressed, irregularly polygonal, c. 0.3 mm diam. Infructescence (immature) narrowly ovoid, 2 cm long on a 2.5 cm peduncle.