Stylochaeton crassispathus Bogner

Rhizome ± vertical, 0.5 cm. thick. Cataphylls 2–2.5 cm. long, oblong, obtuse and green tipped. LEAVES 2-3; petiole 5-28 cm. long, pubescent or sometimes glabrous; basal sheath 1.5-9 cm. long, pubescent, broad and rounded to broadly auriculate and purplish at apex; blade cordate-sagittate, often broadly so, usually sparsely pubescent beneath especially on veins, 6-16 cm. long, 5-15 cm. broad, shortly acuminate, basal lobes with obtuse tips, separated by parabolic to narrowly oblong sinus. INFLORESCENCE appearing before or with leaves, borne at or partly below ground-level; peduncle 0.3-2 cm. long. Spathe 2-5 cm. long, with pronounced central constriction, outer surface reddish in apical part, whitish green in basal part or mottled white and violet, glabrous or sparsely pubescent at extreme base, erect; basal part of tube greatly inflated, globose to depressed-globose, 0.9-1.1 cm. long, 0.8-1 cm. in diameter; narrower upper part of tube up to 3 cm. long; apical limb 1-2 cm. long, 0.8-1.1 cm. in diameter, opening by narrowly-elliptic lateral slit, massively thickened, rigid, ellipsoid, margins rounded, thick, not revolute, apex with short forward-curving conic apiculum. Spadix 1.3-2.5 cm. long, equalling or longer than spathe-tube; staminate part 0.7-1.7 cm. long, 0.3-0.6 cm. thick, cylindric, ± contiguous with pistillate part; pistillate part 0.4-0.5 cm. long, 0.5-0.7 cm. broad. Staminate flowers with 3-6 stamens; perigons congested, sometimes partially connate, rhomboid, margins massively thickened, conspicuously rugose; filaments slender, thickening slightly towards apex; central pistillode subcylindric, longitudinally rugose, projecting somewhat above perigon margins. Pistillate flowers 3-5 in a single basal whorl or sometimes with incomplete second whorl above; perigon oblique, sac-like, green, upper surface substantially thickened, margins free from those of adjacent flowers, brownish; ovary unilocular or bilocular; ovules 2 on single intrusive parietal placenta or few in each locule on axile placentas; style less than 1-1.5 mm. long; stigma capitate, oblique, 1 mm. broad. INFRUCTESCENCE: Berries borne in ± globose infructescence, ± 1 cm. in diameter.