SCINDAPSUS SUBCORDATUS

PROTOLOGUE: Scindapsus subcordatus , published in Das Pflanzenreich IV.23B (Heft 37): 72 (1908). The protologue is reproduced below.

DISTRIBUTION: Papua New Guinea: New Guinea, Papua New Guinea.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Papua New Guinea: New Ireland.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Translated from protologue: Petiole stout, 20–26 cm long, furnished up to the geniculum, which is about 2.4 cm long and 8–10 mm thick, with a leathery, persistent sheath nearly 2 cm wide on each side below and gradually narrowed above; blade leathery, ovate-oblong, slightly unequal-sided, apex shortly acuminate, base broadly emarginate, 30–34 cm long and 15–18 cm wide in the lower third, with 10–12 primary veins on each side leaving the stout midrib, which is slightly depressed above and strongly prominent beneath, at an angle of about 60° and ascending in a slight arc toward the margin, the secondary and tertiary lateral veins finer than the primaries and subparallel.²

INFLORESCENCE:

Translated from protologue: Peduncle short and stout, scarcely 5 cm long and nearly 1.5 cm thick. Spathe not seen. Spadix sessile, cylindric, slightly tapered upward, subacute, about 14 cm long and 2–2.2 cm thick. Pistils prismatic, 4–5 mm long and 2.5 mm thick, the hexagonal apex crowned by a small, orbicular, slightly raised stigma.²

ECOLOGY:

Found in dense coastal forest on New Hanover in the Bismarck Archipelago.²

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin sub-, "somewhat," and cordatus, "heart-shaped," for the leaf base, which Engler and Krause described as broadly emarginate.²

NOTES:

1. In the key to the monograph the species stands beside Scindapsus salomoniensis and Scindapsus ceramensis among the species with a petiole sheathed to the geniculum and the secondary veins finer than the primaries, and is singled out by the ovate-oblong blade broadly emarginate at the base.²

REFERENCES:

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

2. Das Pflanzenreich IV.23B (Heft 37): 72 (1908) — protologue.