Epipremnum pinnatum
Deciduous herb to 0.5 m tall. Subterranean stem a subglobose tuber, to 6 cm across × 4 cm high, brownish. Pseudostem to 20 cm long. Leaves 1–2; cataphylls green, chequered dark pink; petiole to 25 × 1–1.5 cm, white-green or carmine; leaf blade trifoliolate; leaflets elliptic or obovate, to 35 × 18 cm, margins entire, apex acuminate ending in a short arista, base convex; central leaflet with a petiolule to 4 cm long; lateral leaflets with a petiolule to 1.5 cm long, plain green, with impressed veins above, underside with raised veins. Inflorescence more or less held at foliage level; peduncle equalling or shorter than the petiole, pale green; spathe tube cylindrical, slightly constricted near the mouth, 2.5–6 × 1–2 cm, white-green with faint darker veins near the base, white at the base; spathe mouth margins hardly recurved, green; spathe limb lanceolate, horizontal, nearly the length of the tube and scarcely wider, outside and inside yellow-green with a white spot at throat level, tip long-acuminate; spadix appendix protruding from the tube, but shorter than the spathe, bent forward, conical, ending in a naked and subulate tail, 5–6 cm long × 4–6 mm across at base, smooth, dull olive-green, sessile with carmine or green, stiff and short bristles above the fertile part; fertile zone staminate or pistillate, 1.5–2.5 cm long; staminate flowers loosely arranged, 2–3-androus, anthers white and dark purple at top, on a short stalk; thecae dehiscent by an oval pore; pistillate flowers densely arranged; ovaries ovoid, truncate at the top dark green with white striations; stigma on a short style, penicillate, white. Infructescence on an erect peduncle, cylindrical, 8 × 3 cm; fruits ca 10 × ca 7 mm, prismatic, apically flattened, red-orange when ripe, up to 3 seeds per berry. Seeds globose, 3–4 mm diam.
Widespread but often somewhat localized, occurring throughout tropical Asia from the Andaman Islands to western Oceania. For details of the extensive synonomy see Boyce, Blumea 43, 183–213. 1998.
Lowland to lower montane primary and secondary dense to open lowland to upper hill rain and monsoonal forest, weedy in rubber plantations, rocks and coastal forest, on a variety of substrates including granite, andesite and limestone.