SCINDAPSUS CUSCUARIOIDES

PROTOLOGUE: Scindapsus cuscuarioides , published in Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 54: 81 (1916). The protologue is reproduced below.

DISTRIBUTION: New Guinea: New Guinea.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Papua New Guinea: East Sepik.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Translated from protologue: Stem climbing high, terete, stout, the upper internodes short. Petiole thick, as long as the blade or longer, furnished up to the rather long geniculum, which is broadly channeled above, with a leathery, persistent sheath, very broad below, gradually narrowed upward and somewhat rounded at the very apex; blade rigid, leathery, ovate, ovate-oblong or oblong, apex shortly acuminate, base rounded-obtuse, slightly unequal-sided, the stout midrib slightly impressed above and strongly prominent beneath, the lateral veins very numerous, all subequal, leaving the midrib at an angle of 45–50°, ascending near the margin and fairly distinctly prominent. The stem climbs 15–20 m high and is about as thick as a thumb; the petioles are more than 30 cm long, of which 1.8–2.6 cm belong to the geniculum, and their sheath is 2–2.5 cm wide on each side at the base; the blades are dark green in the living plant, up to 35 cm long and 10–15 cm wide.²

INFLORESCENCE:

Translated from protologue: Peduncle short and thick, only 4–6 cm long. Spathe boat-shaped, acuminate at the apex, yellow-green to yellow when fresh and blackish brown when dried, about 20 cm long and 3 cm in diameter when closed. Spadix sessile, cylindroid, slightly tapered upward and rounded at the very apex, about as long as the spathe, green to yellowish, 18 cm long and almost 2.5 cm thick. Pistils prismatic, the mostly hexagonal apex truncate, crowned by a small, orbicular, slightly raised stigma.²

ECOLOGY:

Found in dense montane forest on the Etappenberg in the Sepik region of north-eastern New Guinea, at about 850 m.² altitude: 850 m

ETYMOLOGY:

Resembling Scindapsus cuscuaria, the species with which Engler and Krause compared it because of its numerous, equally prominent lateral veins.²

NOTES:

1. With its numerous, equally prominent lateral veins the species comes closest to Scindapsus cuscuaria, from which it differs by longer spadices and broader, coarser leaf sheaths; from Scindapsus schlechteri, also of New Guinea, it differs in size, sturdier growth, much larger leaves and a different leaf shape.²

2. Boyce and Wong list the species among those described after Engler and Krause's monograph of 1908, the last revision of the genus, and note that there is no modern account of Scindapsus and that many of its species are known only from fragmentary collections.³

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Scindapsus cuscuarioides

2. Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie 54: 81 (1916) — protologue.

3. Boyce & Wong 2015. Compendium Genera Aracearum Malesianum. Aroideana 38E(1): 40–177