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Araceae
Apoballis grandiflora (Alderw.) S.Y.Wong & P.C.Boyce
SUMMARY
Herb to c. 40 cm tall. Stem epigeal, ?pleionanthic, c. 1.5 cm diam., with internodes c. 1 cm long. Leaves few clustered at the top of the stem; petiole 16–25 cm long, minutely, densely and deciduously pubescent, sheathing in the lower c. ⅓; wings of sheath fully attached, degrading, tapering; blade ovato-sagittate, 13–16 cm long × 5.5–9 cm wide, the base cordate with rounded posterior lobes to 3 cm long, the tip obtuse and very abruptly acuminate for c. 1 cm; midrib slightly prominent adaxially, abaxially more or less flush with the blade and, like the primary and subsidiary veins, minutely and densely pubescent, with c. 10 primary lateral veins on each side, irregularly alternating with 0–2 interprimary veins, diverging at 60–90° and usually each with 1–2 subsidiary veins, particularly in the basal half of the blade; secondary venation arising from the midrib and the lower parts of the primary veins; tertiary venation obscure. Inflorescence ?solitary (arrangement not observed); peduncle length unknown. Spathe c. 12 cm long; lower spathe narrowly ovoid, c. 4.5 cm long, differentiated from the limb by a more or less weak constriction; limb broadly oblong-lanceolate, 8 cm long, thickly coriaceous, apically abruptly acuminate for c. 6 mm, wide open and apically reflexed, apparently caducous (the type has the limb partly abscised but not degrading). Spadix sessile, 10.5 cm long, subcylindric; female zone very obliquely inserted (lower ⅓ adnate to the spathe), slightly conoid, 2 cm long, distally c. 6 mm diam.; pistils crowded, shortly cylindric, c. 0.5 mm diam.; stigma sessile, thickly button-like, as wide as the ovary, papillate; interpistillar staminodes absent from among the pistils; sterile interstice subcylindric (slightly conoid), 1.3 cm long, apically 5 mm thick, largely naked but for scattered small groups of minute sessile staminodes, the apex corresponding with the spathe constriction; male zone more or less cylindric, the base slightly attenuate and with c. 2 irregular whorls of sterile stamens, the apex slightly obconoid, 2.5 cm long × 4 mm thick; stamens crowded, broadly dumbbell-shaped to more or less rectangular, truncate with the connective faintly raised between the thecae, c. 0.5 mm across; appendix subcylindric c. 5 cm long × 6 mm diam., widest c. 1.5 cm from the base, tapering to a blunt point; staminodes of appendix irregularly polygonal, flat-topped, c. 0.7 mm diam. Fruit unknown.