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Araceae
Schismatoglottis evelyniae P.C. Boyce & S.Y. Wong
Nomenclature
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Family: AraceaeGenus: Schismatoglottis
SUMMARY
Lithophytic herb to 50 cm tall. Stem ascending and elongated, rooting as it grows, shoot modules pleionanthic, c. 2 cm diam. Leaves several together, alternating with stout, somewhat brittle tapering lanceolate scabrid cataphylls to 10 cm long; petiole up to 35 cm long, 1.5 cm diam., sheathing only at extreme base, the sheath forming a conspicuous collar, scabrid matte medium green with conspicuous paler broken striations; leaf blade somewhat brittle coriaceous, matte pale to medium green adaxially, paler abaxially, elliptic, to 29 cm long × 10 cm wide, the base cuneate, the tip rather abruptly acuminate for 1.5-2 cm; midrib adaxially impressed, abaxially prominent; primary lateral veins adaxially rather obscure, distinct abaxially, not prominent, ca 15 on each side of midrib, diverging at 45-60°, alternating with lesser interprimary veins and running into a intramarginal vein ca 1.5 mm from the margin; secondary venation adaxially obscure, abaxially very faint, arising from the midrib. Inflorescence solitary, subtended by a lanceolate cataphyll and a 2-keeled prophyll both to ca 4 cm long; peduncle very short, obscured by cataphylls. Spathe ca 9 cm long; lower spathe glossy pale green, squat subcylindric, oblique-based, ca 2 cm long × 1 cm diam., differentiated from the limb by a slight constriction; spathe limb caducous, degrading into a granular mass, gaping and somewhat cucullate at pistillate anthesis, reflexing and falling at staminate anthesis, c. 7 cm long, apically mucronate, white, degrading to dirty greyish. Spadix sessile, ca 7 cm long; pistillate flower zone ca 1.2 cm long, obliquely inserted but not adnate to the spathe; pistils ovoid, crowded, ca 1.5 mm diam. white; stigma sessile, globose discoid, as wide as the ovary, ca 0.7 mm diam.; interpistillar staminodes absent; sterile interstice ca 4 mm long × 5 mm diam., a few whorls of clavate staminodes ca 1 mm across, these expanding laterally at onset of staminate anthesis, medium yellow; staminate flower zone 2 cm long, held partly within the lower spathe chamber, slender and somewhat attenuate, narrower than the pistillate zone and the appendix. ca 3-4 mm diam.; stamens crowded, ivory; anther sessile, connective flat, ca 0.25 mm across, flat-topped, polygonal; spadix appendix clavate, about twice as thick as the male zone, c. 6 mm diam., composed of columnar (lowermost malformed owning to pressure from the spathe limb) impressed-topped, irregularly polygonal (sometimes united), medium yellow staminodes each ca 0.8 mm diam. Infructescence with the spathe limb shed and the lower spathe persisting; mature infructescence not observed.