e-Flora of Thailand

Volume 11 > Part 2 > Year 2012 > Page 257 > Araceae > Pothos

3. Pothos kingii Hook.f.

Fl. Brit. India 6: 553. 1893; Engl. in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV, 23B (Heft 21): 38. 1905; Ridl., Mat. Fl. Malay Penins.: 51. 1907; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 5: 131. 1925; Boyce, Blumea 45: 189. 2000; Boyce & Hay, Telopea 9: 515. 2001; Boyce, Thai Forest Bull., Bot. 37: 19. 2009. Plate LXX: A.


Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.



Synonyms & Citations :

Pothos grandispathus Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 41: 48. 1904 (‘grandispatha’).
Pothos ridleyanus Furtado, Gard. Bull. Singapore 8: 150. 1935.
Pothos ellipticus Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 41: 48. 1904, nom. illeg., non P. ellipticus Moon ex Miq.


Description : Moderate, slender, heterophyllous, root-climbing hemiepiphyte to 7 m. Stem (juvenile) ca 3 mm diam., terete in cross-section, shingle-leaved; stem (mature) to 8 mm diam., terete in cross-section. Leaves dense; petiole slender, 4–12 cm by 2–2.5 mm; petiolar sheath extending to pulvinus, clasping basally on juvenile and mature sterile shoots, prominent and sheathing to ⅘ of its length on fertile shoots; leaf blade ovate to elliptic or lanceolate, 5–25 by 2.5–9 cm, stiffly chartaceous, air-drying dull green with the midrib pale yellow and prominently raised. Flowering shoot elongated, leafy, arising from most of the mid- to distal-most leaf axils of fertile shoots. Inflorescence solitary; peduncle reflexed by ca 90° at the base with the inflorescence held inverted beneath the shoot, 2–5 cm by 1.5– 2.5 mm, stout, yellow to orange-brown; spathe ovate, deeply cucullate with the apex acute, 4–10 by 2.5–6 cm, base slightly decurrent on the peduncle, deep purple inside and out, softly leathery and rather prominently net-veined; spadix sessile, cylindrical, 2.5–7 cm by 3–8 mm, deep glossy purple-brown; flowers ca 1 mm diam. Infructescence not seen.


Thailand : SOUTH-WESTERN: Prachuap Khiri Khan; PENINSULAR: Ranong, Surat Thani, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla, Narathiwat.


Distribution : Peninsular Malaysia (type and types of Pothos ellipticus Ridl., P. grandispathus and P. ridleyanus).


Ecology : Shady to open areas in wet primary evergreen forests, often on steep slopes. Frequently, but not exclusively, associated with limestone; 50–450 m alt.


Notes: Unique in Thailand owing to its deeply cucullate, softly leathery, deep purple spathe, Pothos kingii is restricted to southern Peninsular Thailand and a few localities in Peninsular Malaysia where it occurs in wet forest. Fertile specimens are instantly recognizable but sterile material could be confused with vegetatively similar P. lorispathus (with which P. kingii is often allopatric), and P. curtisii. The last is known from one locality in Peninsular Thailand, but is widespread and locally common in Peninsular Malaysia.


Main
Plate LXX: A
Pothos kingii Hook.f.