Volume 11 > Part 2 > Year 2012 > Page 281 > Araceae > Rhaphidophora

15. Rhaphidophora pertusa (Roxb.) Schott

Bonplandia (Hannover) 5(3): 45. 1857; Prodr. Syst. Aroid.: 382. 1860; Engl. in A.DC. & C.DC., Monogr. Phan. 2: 244–245. 1879; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 546–547. 1893; Engl. & Krause in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV, 23B (Heft 37): 47–48. 1908; Hu, Dansk Bot. Ark. 23: 423. 1968.— Pothos pertusa Roxb. Hort. Beng.: 83. 1814.— Monstera pertusa (Roxb.) Schott, Wiener Z. Kunst 1830: 1028. 1830.— Scindapsus pertusus (Roxb.) Schott in Schott & Endl., Melet. Bot.: 21. 1832.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Large to very large, robust to massive climber. Stems terete, up to 3.5 cm diam. Leaves evenly scattered along climbing stems, although tending to be somewhat clustered towards stem tips; petiole 20–35 cm long, somewhat deeply canaliculate, with pronounced apical pulvinus; petiolar sheath extending ca ⅓ along petiole, soon withering; leaf blade (juvenile) ovate, oblong-ovate or oblong-elliptic, entire and not perforated; (adult) broadly ovate-oblong to almost rounded-ovate, 20–50 by 15–25 cm, acute or usually cuspidate-acuminate and rounded or subcordate at base, simple, unequal sided, entire or irregularly and shallowly lobed, occasionally with large holes and some of the perforations usually extending to the margin. Inflorescence solitary, often displaced by shoot extension and appearing lateral; peduncle 5–18 cm long; spathe coriaceous, oblong, acuminate, 15–20 by 10 cm when expanded, greenish at first, becoming whitish then yellowish or pale pinkish orange, soon withering and deciduous; spadix cylindrical, 10–15 cm by 1.5–2.5 cm diam., pale orange at anthesis; stylar plate conical; stigma punctiform. Infructescence not seen.

Thailand : NORTH-EASTERN: Loei.

Distribution : Sri Lanka (but not collected there for more than a century), S India north-eastwards (type) to Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Ecology : Evergreen forests or mixed deciduous lowland to montane forests, on granite and limestone.