Schismatoglottis jepomii (Araceae)
Facultative rheophytic herb to c. 45 cm tall, forming large clumps. Stem condensed, epigeal, pleionanthic, c. 8–10 mm diam., to c. 6 cm long (usually less); foliage leaves many together, each subtended by submembranous, later papery linear dark brown (when dry) cataphylls to 5 cm long; petiole 10–14 cm long, slender, terete, sheathing only at very base; sheath very shortly and truncately ligular; leaf blades spreading to erect, lanceolate, somewhat brittlecoriaceous, glossy mid- to dark green adaxially, concolorous or frequently with irregular jagged or cloudy paler green or creamy grey blotched along the midrib, abaxially paler, the base cuneate, the tip long-acuminate and terminating in a 2–5 mm long tubular mucro, 8–25 x 1–5 cm; venation more or less obscure adaxially; midrib flattened-raised adaxially, usually drying with a more or less conspicuous narrow central channel adaxially, abaxially prominent; primary lateral veins, c. 14 on each side of midrib, alternating with scarcely lesser interprimaries and diverging at c. 35°; secondary venation more-or-less obscure forming a weak reticulum, tertiary venation not visible. Inflorescences (solitary to) clustered in groups of up to four, smelling pungently of acetic acid; peduncle moderately robust, much shorter than the petiole c. 2 cm long and hardly emerging from the subtending cataphyll. Spathe white, c. 9 cm long; lower spathe ovoid basally becoming slender cylindrical above, c. 5 cm long; limb elongate-ovate, gaping at female anthesis then crumbling and falling, distinctly incurved ventrally, c. 4 cm long, apically stiffly mucronate for c. 3 mm, soon crumbling-caducous. Spadix sessile, stout, lower part cylindrical, distally weakly elongate-clavate, c. 4 (lower part) to 6 mm (upper part) diam., ventrally curved, slightly shorter than the spathe, c. 7 cm long; female zone c. 5 mm long, slightly conical, obliquely inserted but otherwise entirely free from the spathe; pistils crowded; ovary squatoblong, c. 0.75 mm diam.; style distinct, c. 0.5 mm long; stigma minutely papillate, as wide as the style; interpistillar staminodes scattered throughout the zone, clavate, c. 0.5 mm diam.; male and female zones contiguous; male zone c. 2.5 cm long, cylindric; stamens truncate, partly confluent apical pores; appendix sub-cylindric, c. 3.7 cm long, weakly elongate-clavate, blunt-tipped, composed of columnar trapezoid to triangular staminodes. Fruiting spathe with the lower part broadly ovoid.
Schismatoglottis jepomii belongs to the Schismatoglottis tecturata group (see Hay & Yuzammi 2000: 162) based on shoot arrangement (pleionanthic with the leaf sheath very short and fully attached; foliage leaves alternating with cataphylls) but differs from the two species hitherto comprising this group (S. tecturata (Schott) Engl. and S. petri A.Hay) by the spathe limb crumbling and shedding before male anthesis. Schismatoglottis jepomii differs from S. tecturata in the considerably larger size of the inflorescence and the scattered interpistillar staminodes (arranged in a single ring at the base of the female zone in S. tecturata). From S. petri the truncate connective is immediately diagnostic.
Borneo: Sarawak, Kuching and Sri Aman Divisions.
Facultative rheophyte in deep sandy-loam along stream banks in lowland secondary forest.