You are here
Araceae
Dieffenbachia obscurinervia Croat
SUMMARY
Slender herb,0 .8-1.5 m tall, stem decumbent on older parts, weakly rooted, leaf scars inconspicuous; internodes glossy, (1)3-4(5) cm long, 1.5- 2.5(3) cm diam., dark green, epidermis fissured minutely into a netlike reticulum becoming uniformly fissured and brown-scurfy with age; petioles 8 -12 cm long, averaging 10.6 cm long, sheathing 1/2 to throughout (average0 .8 their length), light green or yellow-green with the surface dark green-splotched or dark green with white or yellow spots (sometimes with spots forming a repeated series of irregular bands); sheath 6.7-10 cm long, the tip usually rounded to inequilaterally emarginate, rarely decurrent, frequently with one side emarginated and with the other side acute; unsheathed portion lack-ing or to 5.2 cm long, sharply to bluntly sulcate; blades narrowly elliptic, 20-30 cm long (averaging 24 cm long),5 -8 cm wide (averaging7 .5 cm wide), 2.4-5.2 times longer than wide, 1.6-3.1 times longer than petiole, slightly inequilateral, one side 0.7-1 cm wider than the other side, subcoriaceous, weakly bicolorous, gradually acuminate, briefly apiculate at apex, frequently somewhat falcate, cuneate to obtuse or rounded, often weakly inequilateral, rarely weakly subcordate at base, upper surface dark green, semiglossy, drying dark yellow-green to dark olive-green; lower surfaces lightly to moderately paler, drying yellow-green, midrib slightly raised to flat above, concololous, drying concolorous above, convex to narrowly rounded below, dark green, densely pale yellowish green-spotted, drying paler than surface or darker than surface below; primary lateral veins 10 to 13 per side, weakly etched above, weakly raised or not at all raised below; the interprimary veins almost as conspicuous as primary lateral veins, minor veins moderately distinct below. INFLORESCENSES 1 to 3 per axil; peduncle (1.7) 3- 5 cm long somewhat flattened in cross section; spathe 11.5-2() c m long, 3.2-9.5 times longer than peduncle, (lark green or pale green throughout, caudate-acuminate, sometimes sharply reflexed below apex, . Spadix1 0-18 cm long; f ree portion 5 -9 cm long; pistillate portion 5-5.5 cm long; sterile segment less than 1 cm long, 6 mm diam., with scattered staminodia throughout; pistils 20 to 40, moderately closely spaced, scattered, 2-2.6 mm diam.; stigma depressed-globose, 2mm diam., staminodia white, usually 3 per pistil, 1.5-2(3.4) mm long, flattened, oblong to clavate, grooved medially, drying flattened, thickened at apex; synandria irregularly rounded with margins undulate, minutely warty, widely sunken at apex, 1.8-2.6 mm diam., dark yellow-brown, matte on drying. INFRUCTESCENCE broadly arching; spathe mostly deciduous; spadix to 8 cm long; berries red, broadly ellipsoid, to 1.5 cm long, less than 1 cm diam.