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Araceae
Schismatoglottis wahaiana Alderw.
SUMMARY
Small herb 13–20 cm tall. Shoot ?hypogeal, hapaxanthic, condensed, c. 7 mm diam. Leaves few (3–4 together); petiole 6–14 cm long, sheathing in the lower ⅓; wings of sheath fully attached with the margins subparallel to the petiole and apically truncate to retuse; blade ovato- to triangular-sagittate, 6–11 cm long × 3–5 cm wide, the base cordate with more or less rounded posterior lobes 1–2 cm long, the tip acute and acuminate for c. 1 cm and finally shortly mucronate; midrib slightly raised abaxially and adaxially, with 5–6 primary lateral veins on each side alternating with lesser interprimaries and diverging at c. 60°; secondary venation arising from the midrib and from near the bases of the primary veins; tertiary venation forming a faint tessellate reticulum. Inflorescences 1–3 together; peduncle c. 1.5 cm long at anthesis, later slightly elongating and declinate, subtended by and becoming exserted from small lanceolate cataphylls. Spathe slender, 2.5–3.5 cm long; lower spathe 0.5–1 cm long, very narrowly ovoid and slightly curved, differentiated from the limb by a weak constriction; limb narrowly lanceolate, 2–2.5 cm long, somewhat falcate (curved in the opposite direction to the lower spathe, so the whole somewhat sigmoid), apically acuminate for c. 6 mm. Spadix slender, 1.5–3 cm long; female zone 4–8 mm long, adnate to the spathe in the lower ½, the free part somewhat conoid, apically 1.5–2 mm diam.; pistils crowded, subglobose, 0.3 mm diam.; stigma raised on a very short style, button-like, finely papillate; interpistillar staminodes absent from among the pistils, confined to a single row along the spathe/spadix adnation and a cluster at the base of the female zone on the ventral side, clavate, round-topped, shorter than the pistils, drying orange-ish; sterile interstice well-defined, a zone 2 mm long × 1.5–2 mm diam., of somewhat swollen abortive anthers corresponding with the spathe constriction; male zone subcylindric (slightly obconoid), 0.5–1 cm long, apically 2.2–3 mm diam.; stamens crowded, truncate, dumbbell-shaped, large, c. 0.8 mm across, with the connective conspicuously broad (i.e. the thecae wide apart) and very slightly raised between the thecae; pores of pollen sacs partly confluent and conspicuous in each theca, the rims slightly raised and deeply cleft on the outer edges; appendix subcylindric, basally faintly thicker than the top of the male zone, distally tapering to a blunt point, 7 mm long; staminodes of appendix irregularly polygonal with rounded angles, c. 0.5 mm diam. Fruiting spathe urceolate and slightly falcate, c. 1 cm long.