CYRTOSPERMA KOKODENSE
PROTOLOGUE:
Cyrtosperma kokodense A.Hay, published in Blumea 33: 447 (1988), with Fig. 9.
Type: C.E. Carr 16194, Papua New Guinea, Northern (Oro) Province, Kokoda, 22 March 1936 (holotype L; isotypes B, BM, CANB, SING). Hay's diagnosis: differs from C. cuspidispathum in the mostly straight spines, the armed blade, the spathe not convolute at the base and not long-acuminate at the apex.²
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION:
New Guinea: New Guinea.¹
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Northern (Oro) and Central Provinces, Papua New Guinea: Kokoda, the Kokoda Trail and Boridi village.² Records 1933–1973, at 350–1,190 m.⁴
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Herb to 1.5 m tall. Blade markedly hastate to sagittate, c. 40–100 cm long in flowering plants; anterior lobe to 30 cm from tip to sinus; posterior lobes obliquely narrowly ovate, to c. 75 cm long, with rather fine and numerous costae diverging from the midribs at about 35 degrees. Petioles sometimes mottled; armature sparse, short, slender, to 4 mm long, straight to upcurved.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Spathe to 25 cm long, lanceolate, to 2.5 cm wide, in the lower 5 cm the margins clasping the spadix but not overlapping, deflected in the middle part, spirally twisted in the upper part, the tip not or hardly acuminate, the whole purple, paler within and with yellowish streaks; spadix stipitate for 1 cm, 4.5–5.5 cm long and c. 6 mm wide in flower, cylindrical. Flowers hexamerous; anthers not exceeding the tepals at male anthesis; stigmas brown when dried, papillate; ovary 1(–2)-ovulate. Ripe fruit and seed unknown; Hay expected the fruits to be expelled from the spadix as in C. cuspidispathum.²
ECOLOGY:
Rainforest undergrowth and stream sides at around 400 m.²
DISTRIBUTION MAPS:
Hay 1988 Fig. 8.
ETYMOLOGY:
Of Kokoda, the type locality in Oro Province, at the northern end of the Kokoda Trail.
NOTES:
1. The second member of the Cuspidispathum group: stamens not exserted, spathe twisted above; it is the smaller plant with straight spines and an armed blade.²
2. Named from material gathered by C.E. Carr in 1936 and by Evelyn Cheesman, who also collected at Kokoda.²
3. ⚠ No photograph of a living plant was found; the Kokoda Trail is well walked and images may exist outside the sources searched.
STORY:
STORY TITLE: Named for the most walked track in New Guinea, and never photographed
Thousands of people walk the Kokoda Trail every year. Cyrtosperma kokodense is named for it.
Not one photograph of the living plant appears in anything gathered for this genus. Hay thought it might share the fruit-hanging mechanism of Cyrtosperma cuspidispathum, its partner in the Cuspidispathum group, but nobody has watched a plant closely enough to say.
Of all the gaps in this genus, this is the one most likely to be closed by somebody with a phone.
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Cyrtosperma kokodense.
2. Hay, A. 1988. Cyrtosperma (Araceae) and its Old World allies. Blumea 33: 427–469 — protologue, p. 447.
3. iNaturalist: Cyrtosperma kokodense
4. GBIF occurrence download for Cyrtosperma, 2026-09-05 (11 records)