e-Flora of Thailand

Volume 11 > Part 2 > Year 2012 > Page 269 > Araceae > Rhaphidophora

1. Rhaphidophora beccarii (Engl.) Engl.

Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 1: 181. 1881; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 546. 1893; Mat. Fl. Malay Penins. 3: 44. 1907; Engl. & Krause in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV, 23B (Heft 37): 46. 1908; Boyce, Gard. Bull. Singapore 51: 202–205, fig. 3. 1999.— Epipremnum beccarii Engl., Bull. R. Soc. Tosc. Ortic. 4: 268. 1879.


Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.



Synonyms & Citations :

Rhaphidophora borneensis Engl., Araceae exsicc. et illustr. n. 195 & Engl., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 7, Beibl. 15: 1. 1886.
Rhaphidophora fluminea Ridl., J. Straits Branch Roy. Asiat. Soc. 44: 186. 1905.


Description : Small to medium-sized, heterophyllous rheophyte, very rarely short liane, to 75 cm; juvenile plants shingling. Stem smooth, mid- to dark green, with very sparse petiolar sheath fibre; feeding roots densely scaly. Leaves distichous, (juvenile) appressed and shingling; (adult) erect or spreading and scattered on pre-adult shoots, tending to become distally clustered on adult shoots; petiole narrowly canaliculate to carinate, 8–31 by 0.3–1.5 cm, smooth, apical and basal pulvini prominent; petiolar sheath prominent, extending to the apical pulvinus, variably persistent and mostly degrading into semipersistent weak fibres; leaf blade entire in seedling and pre-adult individuals, entire, pinnatipartite or pinnatisect in adult plants, narrowly lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, slightly oblique, 21–51 by 2–23 cm, subcoriaceous to slightly fleshy, base decurrent, apex acuminate with a moderately prominent tubule; midrib prominently raised abaxially, sunken adaxially; primary venation pinnate, raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially; interprimaries sub-parallel to primaries, slightly raised abaxially, ± flush adaxially, often forming a weak reticulum; secondary venation prominently reticulate, slightly raised; tertiary venation a network of broadly spaced tessellate veins arising at ca 90° from the midrib and crossing the primaries and interprimaries. Inflorescence one to three together, subtended by a prominent cataphyll degrading to fibres before anthesis; peduncle terete, 8–12 by 0.2–0.4 cm; spathe narrowly canoe-shaped, stoutly beaked, 6.5–7 by 1–1.5 cm, stiffly fleshy, dirty white at anthesis, soon falling; spadix cylindrical, sessile, inserted perpendicular to peduncle, 4.5–7 by 0.6–1 cm, dull whitish; stylar region rather well developed, mostly rhombohexagonal, ca 1–1.5 by 1–1.5 mm, truncate; stigma elliptic, longitudinally orientated, occasionally almost circular, ca 0.5 by 0.3 mm, often very prominent especially in dried material; anthers exserted at anthesis. Infructescence 7–9 by 1–2 cm, often markedly irregular in outline, mid-green when ripe.


Thailand : PENINSULAR: Yala, Narathiwat.


Distribution : Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and throughout Borneo (type and types of Rhaphidophora borneensis and R. fluvialis).


Ecology : Rheophytic on rocky or alluvial (sandy) wooded streambanks, on limestone or granite in primary to disturbed old secondary lowland to hill and less often swamp forests; 70–900 m alt.


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