Araceae
Amydrium zippelianum (Schott) Nicolson
SUMMARY
Robust low climber. Stem to 3.5 cm thick, internodes to 6 cm long on fertile shoots although often considerably longer on foraging shoots, main stems climbing or prostrate, clinging and not giving rise to fertile free lateral shoots but plants often producing long slender terminal or lateral flagellae with reduced cataphylls (foraging shoots). Roots produced, often copiously, from stem nodes, robust, to 4 mm diam. Leaves to 125 X 90 cm, often considerably smaller in cultivation, lamina ovate-cordate in outline, pinnatisect often to the mid-rib, then the pinnae usually separated by a 1-4 cm naked axis, pinnae dropping, primary lateral veins pinnate, running into a prominent marginal vein, higher order venation reticulate. Petioles to 85 X 2 cm, geniculate apically and basally, channelled apically, petiolar sheath usually less than half as long as petiole, fibrous. Inflorescence(s) 1-8, produced at the tip of clinging stems, subtended by several quickly blackening, later decomposing dense-fibrous cataphylls; peduncle 3-23 X 0.75-1.5 cm, erect. Spathe to 17 X 12 cm (flattened out), broadly ovate, apiculate, reflexing at anthesis and then deciduous yellow, quickly blackening. Spadix to 8 X 2 cm, stipitate to sessile, sessile examples with a decurrent spathe and an adnate stipe, stipe 0-2 cm long, spadix yellow at anthesis then turning green and finally orange-red when ripe. Flowers bisexual, naked, arranged in a honeycomb pattern; stamens 4, filaments short, strap-shaped, length varying according to developmental stage, eventually equalling or overtopping the gynoecium, anthers shorter than the filaments, thecae ovoid, 1- 3 mm long, extrorse, dehiscing by longitudinal slit; gynoecium 6-10 X 4-6 mm (width measured across the style) at anthesis, considerably larger at ripe fruit, obpyramidal, tetragonal, ovary I-locular with a deeply intrusive basal septum, ovules 2, anatropous, funicle short, placenta near base of the septum, style broader than ovary, more or less truncate, stigma small, vertically elongated. Infructescence to 22 cm X 5.5 cm when ripe, cylindrical; berries truncate apically, the rim of each stylar portion raised and eventually dehiscent to expose seeds embedded in soft, gelatinous pulp, infructescence orange-red when ripe; seed 1 X 0.6 cm, kidney-shaped, testa smooth, glossy, brown, embryo curved and partly green.