Araceae
Biarum mendax P.C.Boyce
SUMMARY
Tuber globose-discoid, 4 × 3.5 cm, mid-brown. Leaves not seen. Inflorescence appearing in late summer to autumn. Peduncle 12 cm × 5 mm, clothed by few to many 5–13 cm × 7–15 mm papery, pale yellowish white cataphylls. Spathe 16–24 cm long; spathe limb lanceolate, 18–20 cm × 15–18 1 × 0.33 mm, purple, stigma capitate, c. 0.5 mm in diam., purple. Infructescence not seen. 2n not recorded. mm, apex long acuminate, exterior green ± heavily blotched and stained purple-brown, interior deep purple-brown; spathe tube globose, strongly inflated, 4–5 × c. 3 cm wide, margins fused for their entire length, exterior pale green stained purple-brown especially towards the opening, interior off-white distally, deep purple proximally. Spadix sub-equal to exceeding the spathe limb, 16–21 cm long; spadix appendix slender fusiform-cylindric, 14–16 cm × 6–8 mm, deep purple-brown. Staminate flowers in a zone 11–13 × 6–9 mm, deep purple. Interstice 23–25 × 5–6 mm, deep purple. Staminodes situated at the base of the interstice, few, filiform, 5–14 mm long, deep purple. Pistillate flowers in a hemispherical cluster 4–5 × 7–13 mm wide; ovary 2–3 mm long, cream; style 1 × 0.33 mm, purple, stigma capitate, c. 0.5 mm in diam., purple. Infructescence not seen. 2n not recorded.