SCINDAPSUS GENICULATUS
PROTOLOGUE: Scindapsus geniculatus , published in Bullettino della Reale Società Toscana di Orticultura 4: 271 (1879).
DISTRIBUTION: Borneo (Sarawak): Borneo, Sarawak.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Translated from Engler & Krause (1908): Stem terete, thick, about 2.5 cm in diameter. Petiole stout, woody, 20–30 cm long, furnished up to the geniculum, which is about 1 cm long and 12 mm thick, with a rather broad, leathery, persistent sheath narrowed upward; blade elongate-lanceolate, strongly narrowed from the upper third toward the base, apex subacute, about 45 cm long and 8–9 cm wide at the base of the upper third, with 12–16 primary lateral veins on each side leaving the stout midrib at an angle of about 30° and ascending toward the margin, and numerous finer parallel secondary veins.³
INFLORESCENCE:
Translated from Engler & Krause (1908): Peduncle short, about 3 cm long. Spathe ovate-oblong, slightly gaping, cuspidate, 8 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. Spadix very shortly stipitate, cylindric, slightly tapered toward the apex, 7 cm long and 1.5 cm thick below. Pistils prismatic-hexagonal and truncate above, cylindroid below, 4 mm long and 1.5 mm thick, with an orbicular stigma in the hollowed apex.³
ECOLOGY:
Collected in Sarawak about 4 km east of Minah camp in the Bintulu district and on Gunung Mulu at 1200 m.⁶ Peter Boyce, writing from Sarawak in 2007, counted Scindapsus geniculatus among the obligate primary epiphytes there. Its leaves are held in a fan that works as a litter trap, and the plant forms short, erect, pointed roots extensively into the litter it collects, as many Anthurium do.⁷ He thought the species particularly nice because the back of its leaves is chalky-gray.⁸ altitude: 1200 m
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin geniculatus, "kneed" or "jointed," for the very short, strongly swollen geniculum at the top of the petiole that Engler emphasized in his description.⁴
NOTES:
1. The protologue in the Bullettino della Reale Società Toscana di Orticultura for 1879 names Scindapsus geniculata as no. 28 on page 271; Engler's redescription of 1882 in Malesia, with figures 6–10 of plate XXI, and the 1908 monograph account supplement it here.²
2. The monograph knew the species only from Beccari's Sarawak collection 1875 in Florence and keyed it beside Scindapsus beccarii among the species with an oblanceolate blade acute at the base, separating it by the blade narrowed from the upper third toward the base rather than from the middle.³
3. Engler called Scindapsus geniculatus a very remarkable species and figured it in figures 6–10 of plate XXI: a very thick climbing stem 2.5 cm across, thick woody petioles 20–30 cm long broadly sheathed to the very short, strongly swollen geniculum about 1 cm long and 12 mm thick, an elongate-lanceolate blade half a meter long strongly narrowed from the upper third toward the base, a peduncle 3 cm long, an ovate-oblong slightly gaping cuspidate spathe 8 cm long, and a very shortly stipitate cylindric spadix 7 cm long with truncate pistils bearing an orbicular stigma in the hollowed apex.⁴
4. Ridley's enumeration of the aroids of Borneo lists the species only from Beccari's Sarawak collection.⁵
5. Hotta's collections from the Bintulu district in October 1963 and from Gunung Mulu at 1200 m in March 1964 were the first records since Beccari's type gathering.⁶
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Scindapsus geniculatus
2. Bullettino della Reale Società Toscana di Orticultura 4: 271 (1879) — protologue.
3. Engler & Krause 1908. Araceae-Monsteroideae. Das Pflanzenreich IV.23B (Heft 37): 4–139
4. Engler 1882. Aracee della Malesia e della Papuasia raccolte da O. Beccari. Malesia 1: 259–302
6. Hotta 1966. Notes on Bornean plants I. Acta Phytotaxonomica et Geobotanica 22(1–2): 1–10
7. Aroid-L mailing list, Peter Boyce, February 8th, 2007
8. Aroid-L mailing list, Peter Boyce, February 9th, 2007
Additional photos by David Scherberich
Additional photo by Peter C. Boyce, from the International Aroid Society
Additional photos from the Field Guide to the Plants of the Deer Cave Trail, Gunung Mulu National Park (ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity, 2017) by Jeanne Tan