Anthurium merlei

Appressed-climbing hemiepiphyte, stems erect; inter nodes typically longer than broad, 7-18 cm long, 1.2 1.5 cm wide upon drying; cataphylls 14-20 cm long, drying reddish brown, persisting fairly tight on stem, intact closer to base, flaking off and exposing paler fibres from roughly middle to tip. Leaves with petiole 62-77 cm long (averaging 71 cm long), ribbed, thick er at base and narrowing as reaching petiolar plexus, 0.9 cm diam. on average just above petiolar plexus, drying darker than blade, sheathed 10-21.5 cm; blade ovate to narrowly ovate, 54-101.5 cm long, 32-54 cm wide (averaging 72.5 x 41 cm wide), 1.5-1.8 longer than wide, 0.8-1.3 as long as blade, somewhat coriaceous, narrowly ovate-cordate, acuminate at apex, prominently lobed at base, drying greyish to greyish yellow-brown above, greyish yellow-brown to greenish grey below; sinus narrowly hippocrepiform to broadly obovate; midrib prominently raised, narrowly rounded, drying yellow-brown and darker on upper surface, drying bluntly acute and yellow-brown below; primary lateral veins 8-12 per side, arising at an acute angle, then spreading at a 55-65? angle, with the angle decreasing as the veins approach the apex, running parallel to each other and curving slightly towards the apex, then extending very close to the margin for some distance, drying nar rowly raised and darker above, yellow-brown and dark er than the surface below, much more prominent than the interprimaries; basal veins 6(-7) per side, regularly branching off posterior rib, the 1st and 2nd free to base, the 5th and 6th fused to 7-7.5 cm, radiating out mod erately straight, curved upwards and merging with mar gin; collective veins arising from one of the uppermost primary lateral veins; tertiary veins prominulous. Inflorescence erect; peduncle 38-47 cm long; spathe spread ing, green to cream with a tinge of pink or pinkish red or pink, 17-23.5 cm long, 3-12 cm wide, becoming very widely cordate at base at maturity; spadix erect, pink to reddish (pale green when immature), 19-21 cm long, 1-1.5 cm diam. Flowers (1.8-)2.4-2.6 mm long and wide, 11-12 visible per spiral; tepals conspicuously granular, lateral tepals 1.8-2 mm wide, the outer margin 2-sided, all tepals turned upward against the pistils upon drying; stamens barely emerging above the edge of the tepals at anthesis and apparently then retracted, c. 1 mm diam. Berries not seen.