Culcasia ekongoloi (Araceae)
Plant creeping, then climbing to 6 m above the ground; Anchor roots short, 0.5-3 cm; Stem densely and finely verrucose, 2-5 mm thick when dry; branching generally sympodially into 2 unequal branches, the shorter one, 2-3 cm, most often becoming the flowering shoot; Internodes 2-9 cm. LEAVES: Petiole 7-11 cm; Sheath spreading and ending abruptly, 1-3 cm from the apex of the petiole; Blade 10-22 x 4-8 cm, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, very assymetric, base cuneiform to obtuse, shortly decurrent on the petiole, apex shortly acuminate, curved in a scythe shape; 4-7 pairs of primary veins, shortly ascending; Dense network of secondary veins and veinlets as prominent as the primary veins; In each mesh, a translucent network corresponding to a holey parenchyma; Glandular lines or dots absent o3r rarely present on the lower surface of the blade, which is generally thick and waxy. INFLORESCENCES terminal, 1-6; Peduncles generally almost as long as the petioles, 3-9 cm, often borne on a very short floral shoot; Spathe, 2-3 cm, green, acuminate, not constricted at the base, rapidly caducous; spadix cream, included, stipe thick, 2-7 mm long; Stigma small, ca. ¼ of the apex of the ovary, unilocular, uniovulate; Ovule campylotropous. INFRUCTESCENCE: Berries green, then orange, finally red.
By the minute stigma, the frequent sympodial branching of the finely (‘tubéreuse’) [verrucose] stem, the ascending venation, this species is very close to Culcasia insulana, but it differs principally by the existence of a network of holey parenchyma, and by the stipitate spadix.
Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Zaire
In Cameroon, this species is abundant in gallery forest in regions in the west, Adamaoua, and it seems, towards Dschang; to a lesser degree, and doubtfully in the regions of Ntem and Dja, in humid gallery forest.