CYRTOSPERMA CARRII
PROTOLOGUE:
Cyrtosperma carrii A.Hay, published in Blumea 33: 450 (1988), with Fig. 10.
Type: C.E. Carr 12307, Papua New Guinea, Central Province, Koitaki, 15 March 1935 (holotype BM; isotypes L, LAE, SING). Hay's diagnosis: differs from all other species of Cyrtosperma in the very broadly ovate spathe convolute at the base and the conoid style.²
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION:
New Guinea: New Guinea.¹
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Central Province, Papua New Guinea: Koitaki, Mafulu, the vicinity of Musgrave, Manumu village and the headwaters of the Kemp Welch River; rare.² Records 1933–1961, at 240–1,250 m.⁴
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Herb to 55 cm tall. Leaves several, hastate, armed on the petiole and on the underside and margins of the blade; petioles to 50 cm long with a sheath 11 cm long; blade to 40 cm long, coriaceous; spines sparse, straight to very slightly curved, to 5 mm long; anterior lobe oblong, gradually acuminate, subequalling the posterior lobes; two anterior costae emerging near the sinus, curvinerved, running to the margin near the tip; posterior lobes broadly lanceolate, their midribs naked in the sinus for c. 3 cm.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Spathe broadly ovate, clasping in the lower fifth, c. 12 cm long and to 8 cm wide when flattened, deep reddish brown with yellow, widely reticulate venation that persists as a skeleton around the fruiting spadix; spadix with a 4 mm stipe adnate to the spathe, the fertile part c. 2.5 cm long and 5 mm wide. Flowers tetramerous; anthers exserted from the tepals at male anthesis (Hay wrote in 1988 that they were not, from limited herbarium material, and corrected this from living plants in 2001); stigmas raised 1–2 mm on the conical apex of the ovary. Fruit ovoid, capped by the style and stigma. Seed smooth.²
ECOLOGY:
Lowland and lower montane rainforest undergrowth at 200–700 m.²
DISTRIBUTION MAPS:
Hay 1988 Fig. 11.
ETYMOLOGY:
For Cedric Errol Carr (1892–1936), the New Zealand-born orchid collector who gathered the type in 1935 and died of blackwater fever in Port Moresby the following year.²
NOTES:
1. The sole member of Hay's Carrii group: lower spathe convolute, flowers tetramerous, style conical and persisting on the fruit.²
2. The net of yellow veins that remains as a skeleton around the fruiting spadix after the spathe tissue has gone is unique in the genus.²
3. "Cyrtosperma carrii would seem to have horticultural potential", Hay wrote in 1988;² a cultivated plant was recorded on iNaturalist in 2025.³
4. Dearden & Hay (2001) note that C. hambalii recalls this species in its dark spathe and exserted stamens, and record that the stamens of C. carrii are exserted at male anthesis, correcting the 1988 account.⁵
STORY:
STORY TITLE: The herbarium said no, the living plants said yes
In 1988 Hay keyed Cyrtosperma carrii on stamens that were not exserted at male anthesis, working from limited herbarium material: dried, collapsed, decades old.
Thirteen years later, with Dearden and living plants in front of him, he corrected it. The anthers are exserted. The character had been an artefact of drying.
The same 2001 paper carried an aside that reads oddly now: the species, Hay thought, "would seem to have horticultural potential", being small, with a broad, richly colored, net-veined spathe. A cultivated record turned up on iNaturalist in 2025. Somebody, eventually, agreed with him.
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Cyrtosperma carrii.
2. Hay, A. 1988. Cyrtosperma (Araceae) and its Old World allies. Blumea 33: 427–469 — protologue, p. 450.
3. iNaturalist: Cyrtosperma carrii
4. GBIF occurrence download for Cyrtosperma, 2026-09-05 (8 records)
5. Dearden, A. & Hay, A. 2001. A new species of Cyrtosperma (Araceae) from West Papua. Aroideana 24: 102–104.
Additional photos from iNaturalist by isjo and johnpaulhouston