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Araceae
Schismatoglottis wongii A.Hay
SUMMARY
Small carpet-forming stoloniferous herb to c. 15 cm tall. Stem condensed, hypogeal, c. 0.5 mm diam., with subterranean stolons to c. 6 cm long. Leaves c. 3 together; petiole c. 10 cm long, sheathing in the lower ½; wings of sheath fully attached, tapering and finally truncate to obtuse; blade ovate to oblong-ovate, variegated with two greyish bands, or spattered greyish, or both, or spattered pale green or not variegated, c. 11 cm long × 4.5 cm wide, the base shallowly cordate with posterior lobes to 1 cm long, the tip acute and acuminate for c. 2 cm; midrib somewhat prominent on both surfaces (dry); primary lateral veins c. 9 on each side of midrib, regularly alternating with lesser interprimaries, diverging at 70–90° and gradually deflected acropetally before joining the margin; secondary venation adaxially somewhat obscure, abaxially fine and dense, arising from the midrib and sometimes from the lower parts of the primary veins; tertiary venation forming an indistinct tessellate reticulum abaxially. Inflorescence solitary to 3 together; peduncle 3.5–4.5 cm long, subtended by a somewhat reduced foliage leaf or a short cataphyll. Spathe to 10.5 cm long, slender; lower spathe c. 3.5 cm long, very narrowly ovoid, green, differentiated from the limb by a weak constriction; limb lanceolate, hardly opening, c. 7 cm long and elevated above the leaves, white, caducous. Spadix c. 8.5 cm long, slender, elongate subcylindric; female zone 2.7 cm long, adnate to the spathe for c. 4⁄5 its length, c. 4 mm wide in the middle and the free part narrowly conic, 2.5 mm diam. at the top; pistils crowded; ovaries subglobose and longitudinally 2–4-lobed (sometimes faintly), c. 0.75 mm diam.; stigma sessile, buttonlike, papillate, almost as wide as the ovary, 0.5–0.6 mm diam.; interpistillar staminodes scattered among the pistils, narrowly clavate to clavate, somewhat taller than the ovary, the heads rounded to flat and then somewhat impressed centrally; sterile interstice absent; male zone cylindric, c. 2 cm long × 2 mm diam., very slightly obconic and distally 3 mm diam., the basal ¼ held within the lower spathe chamber; stamens crowded, truncate, hourglass-shaped, c. 0.5 mm across, the connective very slender and hardly elevated above the thecae; appendix slender, to 4 cm long, the base very slightly wider than the top of the male zone (fresh; narrower when dry), 4 mm wide, gradually tapering to a fine point; staminodes of appendix columnar, sometimes 2–3 connate, with rounded tips, c. 0.25 mm diam. Fruiting peduncle subequalling the petioles; fruiting spathe very narrowly urceolate, to 3 cm long.