Volume 11 > Part 2 > Year 2012 > Page 258 > Araceae > Pothos

4. Pothos leptostachyus Schott

Prodr. Syst. Aroid.: 71. 1860; Engl. in A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 2: 91. 1879; in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV, 23B (Heft 21): 41. 1905; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 5: 130 (sub. P. lorispathus (as ‘lorispatha’). 1925; Boyce, Blumea 45: 195 (sub. P. lorispatha). 2000; Boyce & Hay, Telopea 9: 498. 2001; Boyce, Thai Forest Bull., Bot. 37: 20. 2009. Plate LXX: B.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Synonyms & Citations :

Description : Moderate, robust, (heterophyllous?), root-climbing hemiepiphyte to 8 m. Stem (mature) to 6 mm diam., terete in cross-section; fertile shoots seldom branching, stem of fertile shoot to 4 mm diam., densely clothed with leaves. Leaves dense; petiole slender, 3–7 cm long; petiolar sheath somewhat prominent, extending to just below apical pulvinus, basally clasping, apically briefly auriculate to slightly ligulate; leaf blade oblong-elliptic, often falcate, unequal, occasionally quite strongly so, 10–34 by 2.5–10 cm, base rounded, apex acute to acuminate, very briefly tabulate, stiffly but thinly chartaceous, air-drying dull greenish. Flowering shoot arising from below the leaf axils of fertile shoots, abbreviated, usually leafless but with 1–several well-developed cataphylls, very occasionally with one or more fully developed but reduced leaves. Inflorescence solitary but flowering shoots almost always reiterating and thus several inflorescences at varying degrees of developmental maturity often present; peduncle moderately stout, 3–5 cm by 2–3 mm, erect or curving and ultimately ascending with the inflorescence held erect, dull green; spathe lorate, 2.5–10 cm by 5–15 mm, spreading, base auriculate, auricle margins inrolled, barely decurrent on the peduncle, apex obtuse, acuminate, mid green; spadix stipitate; stipe 8–15 by ca 2 mm, slender, terete, lime green; fertile portion 5–6.5 cm by 3–4 mm, cylindrical to tapering slender-cylindrical, straight to slightly curved, base unequal, creamy yellow; flowers ca 1.5 mm diam. Infructescence with numerous berries; fruit 1–1.5 cm by 5–8 mm, obclavate to ellipsoid, ripening deep scarlet, with basal chartaceous tepal remains.

Thailand : PENINSULAR: Yala.

Distribution : Peninsular Malaysia (type and type of Pothos lorispathus), Indonesia (Sumatra: Aceh), N Borneo.

Ecology : Damp to rather dry evergreen hill forests on limestone; 50–100 m alt.

Notes: Confusion with Pothos wallichii is possible although the stout (2–3 mm diam.) erect peduncles and longer, lorate spathe readily distinguish P. leptostachyus.