Ulearum Engl.

Laticifers anastomosing. HABIT : small evergreen herbs, rhizome creeping horizontally just below the soil surface. LEAVES : 1-several, 1 marcescent cataphyll enclosing base of petiole. PETIOLE : sheath very short. BLADE : subreniform to broadly sagittate, often variegated; primary lateral veins arising from petiole insertion, forming a submarginal collective vein, 1-2 marginal veins also present, higher order venation reticulate. INFLORESCENCE : solitary. PEDUNCLE : slender, subequal to or longer than petiole, base enclosed by a single relatively long cataphyll. SPATHE : oblong-lanceolate, greenish, unconstricted, completely expanded, margins revolute, persistent and dark green in fruit. SPADIX : slender, subequal to spathe, female zone adnate to spathe, separated from male zone by a longer sterile zone, lower part of sterile zone naked or only sparsely covered with sterile flowers, upper part with short dense zone of staminodes, male zone short, composed of 6-7 whorls of stamens, terminal appendix digitiform, base composed of a few whorls of apically rounded staminodes, becoming smooth above. FLOWERS : unisexual, perigone absent. MALE FLOWER : apparently 1-androus, stamens sessile, subtruncate, connective ± broad, thecae ellipsoid to globose, dehiscing by apical pore. POLLEN : inaperturate, spherical, medium-sized (diam. 26-32 µm.), exine spinose. STERILE FLOWERS : depressed globose or cylindric; staminodes below male zone in 2-3 whorls, rounded apically. FEMALE FLOWER : gynoecium narrowly subcylindric, ovary 1-locular, ovule 1, anatropous, funicle short, placenta basal, style ± as thick as ovary, stigma discoid, as broad as style. BERRY : subcylindric to ellipsoid, stigmatic remnant persistent, 1-seeded, dark green and red-spotted. SEED : ellipsoid, testa thin, white, smooth, transparent, embryo ellipsoid, dark green with red spots externally, whitish internally, undifferentiated, endosperm absent.