Volume 11 > Part 2 > Year 2012 > Page 305 > Araceae > Typhonium

7. Typhonium cordifolium S.Y.Hu

Dansk Bot. Ark. 23: 446. 1968. Plate LXXXVI.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Seasonally dormant herb, 2–10 cm tall. Stem a short creeping rhizome. Leaves appressed to ground; petiole short, 0.5–1.5 by to 0.3 cm, smooth, green; leaf blade subcoriaceous, ovate, elongate ovate or elliptic, base slightly cordate, apex somewhat obtuse, upper surface uniformly dark green, or variously variegated with bluish green or entirely bluish green, 7.5–11 by 5–6 cm, top and base often with bulbil formation; peduncle ca 1 cm long, 2 mm diam., subterranean; spathe 8–14 by 3–4 cm at base (when flattened out), lower part and spathe limb separated by a strong constriction; lower part ovoid, 1.5–2 by 1.1 cm, the dorsal inner side of the constriction strongly thickened, exterior whitish with a very faint greyish hue and pale brown veins, inside white, constriction outside green, inside dark purple; spathe limb lanceolate, acute, base convolute, ca 7–8.5 by 1.3–1.5 cm, curving backwards, outside glossy purple with a green hue, inside dull dark purple with a satin sheen, slightly translucent; spadix sessile, as long as spathe, 8–10 cm; pistillate flower zone cylindrical-conical, 2 by 6 mm, flowers congested; ovaries elongate, tapering to the style, 1.7 by 1 mm, white, uniovulate; stigma sessile but distinctly separated from the ovary, depressed, ca 0.3–0.4 by 0.8 mm, white, echinulate or nearly smooth; sterile interstice 1.4 cm long, lower 8 mm with staminodes, these slightly distant, upper part naked, smooth, pale purple; staminodes (sub)clavate, perpendicular to the spadix-axis or slightly curved upwards, 3–4 by 1.3 mm at the apex, apex obtuse or obliquely subtruncate-clavate, base whitish with pinkish spots, remainder orangeish or yellow; staminate flower zone cylindrical, base and apex oblique, 7 by 5 mm, flowers congested; staminate flowers butterfly-shaped in cross-section, white, connective narrow, not raised; appendix thin, acute, 5.5–7 by 0.2 cm, dirty pale yellowish green or yellowish, basal part whitish. Fruits not seen.

Thailand : NORTHERN: Nakhon Sawan; SOUTH-WESTERN: Kanchanaburi (type: Larsen 10577, holotype -C, isotype -BKF), Phetchaburi, Ratchaburi; PENINSULAR: Surat Thani.

Distribution : Endemic.

Ecology : Not recorded.

Notes: Similar to Typhonium violifolium, but the staminodial zone is much longer, staminodes larger and more distinctly clavate.