Schismatoglottis inculta

Small herb to ca. 25 cm tall with vegetative tissues weakly aromatic (terpenoids). Stem very condensed, epigeal, slender, ca. 10 mm diam. Leaves many together (to ca. 20); petiole 9.5-22.5 cm long, ca. 2.5 mm wide, slender, somewhat flexuous, D-shaped in cross-section, upper margins minutely hyaline-alate, especially towards the insertion of the blade, petiole weakly longitudinally ridged, sheathing in the lower ca. 1/3; wings of sheath fully attached tapering terminally and furnished with a minute auricle, membranous, closed, petiole medium green more-or-less heavily stained deep reddish-purple, distal-most part shading to green with red-purple speckles; blade hastate, 11.5-16.5 cm long, 5-10.5 cm wide, very dark semi-glossy green adaxially, paler abaxially and matte, usually somewhat quilted between the primary and interprimary lateral veins, posterior lobes 2-6 cm long, divergent at ca. 45 o to petiole, somewhat forward-curved, subacute, apex acute to acuminate for ca. 1 cm, tipped with a minute tubule to ca. 1 mm, blade margins sinuate-crispulate; midrib abaxially prominent, especially near the base; primary lateral veins 12-14 on each side of the midrib, irregularly interspersed with barely lesser interprimaries, subpectinate, diverging at 85-90 o , those towards the tip rather sharply acropetally deflected before reaching the margin, abaxially somewhat raised, adaxially impressed with the blade tissue quilted; secondary venation arising from both the midrib and the bases of the primary veins, occasionally forming a 3-veined set arising from the mid-rib, all venations running to a sharply-defined marginal vein ca. 1 mm from the margin; tertiary venation abaxially forming a very weakly defined irregular reticulum. Inflorescences several together in a loose sympodium, with several such sympodia arising simultaneous from different shoot tips; first inflorescence subtended by a short pale green cataphyll, subsequent inflorescences separated by a shorter prophyll, seemingly up to four inflorescences per sympodium; peduncle to 7-10 cm long, 2-3 mm wide, somewhat flexuous, whitish green. Spathe 4.5-5 cm long, very pale green in bud, the limb tuning white and the lower spathe glossy medium green post anthesis; lower spathe obliquely ovoid, ca. 1 cm long, ca. 9 mm wide, differentiated from the limb by a distinct constriction; spathe limb ovate-lanceolate, 3.5 cm long, the tip apiculate, at staminate anthesis the spathe limb remaining closed except for a ca. 2 mm circular opening at the limb margins junction with the lower spathe, at staminate anthesis spathe limb inflating and becoming curving-fornicate, minutely gaping along the margins, buy not otherwise opening, later falling by abscission at the lower spathe. Spadix ca. 3.5 cm long, sessile, pistillate zone ca. 1 cm long, very weakly conic-cylindric, obliquely inserted on peduncle, very pale green; pistils crowded or somewhat lax, globose, ca. 75 mm diam.; stigma very shortly stipitate, button-like, papillate, about half the diameter of the ovary; subpistillar staminodes confined to a single row around the base of the pistillate zone pearl-like or briefly stipitate, white, ca. 7 mm wide; sterile interstice ca. 2 mm long, wider than the top of pistillate zone and narrower than the base of the staminate zone, lower part densely covered with compressed globose white staminodes, upper part with more conventional staminodes resembling fertile flowers; staminate flower zone cylindric, ca. 1.3 cm long, ca. 5 mm diam., dirty white; staminate flowers crowded, ca. 0.3 mm diam., stamens two per flower, truncate with flat rims around the C-shaped pores; appendix bluntly cylindric, somewhat wider that the staminate zone, ca. 1 cm × 6 mm, covered with a shaggy mass of much-elongated staminodes to 2.5 mm long, many tipped with a bifid staminate remain, while. Fruiting spathe obliquely urceolate, ca. 2 cm long, abscising basally and splitting into longitudinal strips that then curl awards to reveal the fruit. Fruit compressed-globose, very pale yellowish white, stigma button-like, orange brown.