Caladium clavatum Hett., Bogner & J.Boos

Plant a seasonally dormant herb. Underground part a depressed-globose tuber, 9 cm in diam., 7 cm high, top truncated, producing annual, rhizomatous offsets; offsets to 11 cm long and .8 cm in diam., terete throughout or with an apical tuber. Flowering at the end of the vegetative period or directly after dormancy and then without leaves. Leaf long-petiolate; petiole to 90 cm long, to 1.5 cm in diam., dark brownish purple with darker spots, paler when older; lamina broadly obcordate, peltate, 15-60 cm long, 10-45 cm wide, top broadly acute, aristate, upper surface dark green with whitish spots in young plants, older plants greenish violet with a greyish waxy hue and small, irregularly angulate pinkish spots, primary and major lateral veins prominent, raised, deep violet to maroon, lower surface greyish purple. Inflorescence single or two, flowering shortly after each other and producing a strong sweet scent during female anthesis; peduncle shorter than petioles, 35-40 cm long, .7-.8 mm in diam., smooth, dull dark greyish purple with a pale grey wax-layer; spathe 13-19 cm long, base and limb separated by a strong constriction; base strongly convolute, ovoid, 4-5 cm long, 3-3.5 cm in diam. (closed), 12-13 cm wide when spread, outside dull dirty greenish with or without a purple flush, at the base dark pink or not, near the margins bright pink to whitish or dirty green, all parts covered by a wax layer, inside deep dark maroon, very glossy; limb oblique, upper part revolute, ovate, 9-15 cm long, 5-6.5 cm wide, top acute or obtuse with a very small acute apiculum, margins revolute, inside white with margins pale pink or pink all over, outside very pale green with pale pinkish flushes. Spadix slightly shorter than spathe, 11.5-13.5 cm long, base obliquely inserted on the spathe base; female zone cylindric-fusiform, 23-26 mm long, 12-13 mm in diam. at the middle, top and base slightly attenuated, flowers densely crowded; sterile zone more or less cylindric or conical, 2-4 cm long, 14 mm in diam. at the base, 10 mm in diam. at the top, entirely covered by synandrodes, these more or less distant; male zone conical with attenuated and subcylindric basal part, 7-7.5 cm long, 13-16 mm in diam. near the base of the conical part, the latter slightly bilaterally compressed, subacute, covered all over by densely crowded synandria. Pistils elongate, cylindric, 3 mm long, .8 mm in diam.; ovary 2 mm long, free; stylar region 1 mm long, those of adjacent pistils laterally fused to form a (dis-)continuous layer; stigma more or less orbicular, .6-.8 mm in diam., .1 mm thick, shallowly corrugate, off-white. Synandria peltate, consisting of 4-5 stamens, 2.5 mm long, 2-3 mm in diam., irregular angulate and lobed in upper view. Synandrodes elongate, more or less clavate (lower ones) to subpeltate, 2-4 mm long, with an obconical, stalk-like base, 1-3 mm long, decreasing in length in the upper parts of the sterile zone, and an irregular to suborbicular, more or less flattened upper part, the latter 1 mm high, 2-3 mm in diam., off-white, entire or with a small central depression or irregular grooves radiating from the centre, oval to subangulate or irregular in upper view. Pollen in monads (pers. comm. M. Grayum to J. Boos). Infructescences unknown.