Plants usually epiphytic and scandent, the internodes mostly elongate, the nodes often emitting roots; petioles short or elongate, rarely geniculate near the apex, vaginate for part or all their length; blades herbaceous or more or less coria-ceous, very variable in form, sometimes lobed or parted, the lateral nerves all parallel and equal, or the primary ones often stouter than the secondary; peduncles generally short; spathes succulent, mostly whitish, yellowish, or red, the tube con-volute, cylindric or ventricose, persistent, the blade cymbiform, ovate to lanceolate, commonly erect and after fecundation reconvolute, persistent in fruit; spadix almost equaling the spathe, sessile or short-stipitate, the pistillate portion cylindric, densely many-flowered, juicy in fruit, the staminate portion sterile, below, fertile above for most of its length, finally drooping in fruit; flowers. unisexual, naked; stamens of the staminate flower 2-6, sessile, obpyramidal-prismatic, truncate at the apex, the anther cells oblong or linear, emarginate at the base, opening by a short slit; ovary of the pistillate flower obovoid or ovoid, 2-to several-celled; ovules orthotropous or half-anatropous, ascending on rather long funicles, few or numerous; stigma sessile, hemispheric or sometimes lobulate; fruits baccate, densely crowded; seeds rather numerous, few, or only 1, ovoid-oblong or ellipsoid, straight, the testa rather thick, striate-costate; endosperm present.
Home