Large and coarse, scandent epiphytes, rooting at the nodes; leaves distichous, the juvenile ones usually appressed to the tree trunk, ovate or ovate-cordate, short-petiolate, not perforated; petioles vaginate to the middle or higher, the sheath persistent or deciduous; blades various, entire and asymmetric or more often per-forated or pinnatifid; peduncles terminal, solitary or several; spathe ovate or oblong-ovate, apiculate, cymbiform-convolute, closed after fecundation, finally deciduous; spadix sessile, free, cylindric, densely many-flowered, shorter than the spathe, the lowest flowers sterile, the others perfect, naked; stamens 4, the fila-ments rather broad and compressed, abruptly narrowed into the slender, acuminate connective, scarcely longer than the pistil; anthers 2-celled, the cells oblong, apiculate, longer than the connective, dehiscent by lateral slits; ovary obconic-prismatic, 2-celled, the cells 2-ovulate; ovules anatropous, on very short funicles; style equaling the ovary but thicker, truncate at the apex and slightly elevated at the middle, the stigma depressed-oblong or linear; fruits crowded, baccate, juicy; seeds obverse-ovate or subcordate, subcompressed.
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