Araceae
Anthurium dressleri Croat
Nomenclature
SUMMARY
Terrestrial or lithophytic; decumbent to short erect stem to ca. 70 cm long, 1-3.5 cm diam.; roots moderately few, brown, slender; cataphylls pale green, to 6 cm long, acuminate at apex, drying brown, persisting at upper nodes. LEAVES with petioles erect-spreading; blades held more or less perpendicular to petiole; petioles 4-5-ribbed, 9.8-33 cm long, 5-7 mm wide, narrowly to broadly sulcate adaxially (sometimes bluntly medially ribbed), suffused reddish or purplish violet especially on the adaxial surface sometimes purplish, the ribs at the apex and the base usually not undulated, sometimes those of the geniculum weakly undulated; blades narrowly ovate, acute to shortly acuminate at apex, deeply lobed at base, 14-45.5 cm long, 10-31.2 cm wide (averaging 32.5 x 22.9 cm), 1.1-1.6 times longer than broad, broadest near the middle, 0.8-2.2 times longer than petioles (averaging 1.5 times longer), russet or garnet red on young leaves; anterior lobe 11.3-34 cm long, the margins convex; posterior lobes 5-14 cm long, 4.1-13.7 cm wide, sometimes overlapping, often turned up along inner margins; sinus 5.5-11.5 cm deep, spathulate to closed, acute at apex; upper surface matte, dark green, velvety; lower surface matte, much paler, lacking whitish raised punctations; midrib raised above, acutely raised below; basal veins (2-)3-4( -8) pairs, free to base, raised above and below; petiolar plexus not conspicuous or prominently raised; primary lateral veins 2-4(-6) per side, departing midrib at 40-70° angle, raised above and below; interprimary veins flat, darker than surface; collective veins arising from the first basal vein, 4-9 mm from the margin. INFLORESCENCE erect, shorter than the leaves; peduncle terete or with several sharp ribs, suffused reddish or purplish violet, 9-31 cm long; spathe moderately thin, white or greenish white, occasionally with pink tinges, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 2.7-7.5 cm long, 0.8-2.5 cm wide, broadest in the lower one-third, acuminate to caudate-acuminate at apex, obtuse to cordate at base, inserted at 35° angle on peduncle; spadix pale or bright yellow to yellowish green (B & K Yellow-green 9/2.5) or white, becoming green post-anthesis, 3.5-7.7 cm long, 6-7 mm diam. at base, 4-5 mm diam. at apex; flowers weakly 4-lobed, 2.5-3.2 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, the sides straight to jaggedly sigmoid, ca. 6 flowers in the principal spiral, 10 flowers in the alternate spiral; tepals glossy, weakly punctate, minutely papillate, lateral tepals 0.7-1.5 mm wide, the inner margin broadly convex; pistils green, semiglossy, weakly emergent; stigma ellipsoid, 0.4-0.5 mm long, brush-like with droplets for ca. 1 wk before stamens emerge, drying brown; lateral stamens emerging in a rapid sequence from the base, the alternate pairs emerging much later; anthers 0.4-0.5 mm long, ca. 0.8 mm wide, held above the edge of tepals, not completely emergent from beneath tepals; thecae not divaricate; pollen white. INFRUCTESCENCE pendent, to 13 cm long, 1.7 cm diam.; berries irregularly dispersed, obovoid, dark violet-purple in apical one-third, white to greenish below, 6-8 mm long, 5 mm diam., round to mammilliform at apex; seeds 2, 4-5 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide, obovoid, white (turning green in age) one end oblique, enveloped in a semi-translucent appendage.