Filarum Nicolson

HABIT : small herbs, tuber subglobose. LEAVES : few. PETIOLE : sheath short. BLADE : entire, cordate; primary lateral veins 3 per side, arising from petiole insertion, lower 2 pairs retrorse, all arcuately curving upwards forming submarginal collective vein, marginal vein distinct, higher order venation reticulate. INFLORESCENCE : 1-2 in each floral sympodium, appearing with leaves. PEDUNCLE : slender, longer or shorter than petiole. SPATHE : persistent, oblong-lanceolate, pale green. SPADIX : very slender, much longer than spathe, female zone adnate to spathe, few-flowered, male zone elongate, purple, sparsely flowered, with a very few sterile rudimentary flowers occurring above and below male zone, appendix slender, naked, elongate. FLOWERS : unisexual, perigone absent. MALE FLOWER : 1-androus, filaments very short, anthers nearly sessile, connective extremely long and drawn out into a filiform flexuose thread, thecae globose, dehiscing by apical pore. POLLEN : inaperturate, spherical, small to medium-sized (mean 21 µm.), exine spinose. FEMALE FLOWER : ovary oblong, 1-locular, ovule 1, anatropous, placenta basal, style attenuate, stigma small, subcapitate. BERRY : subglobose to globose, smooth, bearing the style and stigma remains. SEED : ellipsoid, testa thin, smooth, punctate, embryo ellipsoid, endosperm absent.