Underground parts unknown. Plant glabrous, though perhaps with a minute scurfiness about the inflorescences. Stem smooth. Leaves that are below the horizon of flowering large, even to 21 by 19 cm, exactly cordate save for their acumination, and when of this size 13-nerved from the base; petiole about half as long as the blade with the lower pulvinus occasionally much elongated (as in Fig. 1); (though such a pulvinus is not prehensile it aids climbing by preventing slipping from supports). Fertile branches sometimes of great length, arching out from the axil and then pendent, sometimes bearing a few small assimilating leaves. Flowers cymosely arranged, mostly facing earthwards; pedicels as long as, or longer than the flowers, thin or even capillary. Many flowers are open at the same time, and anthesis is deliberate. Tepals during anthesis gradually recurving; tube 3-7 mm deep, persisting in a disorganized state to fruit-ripening; lobes 6-15 mm long, if more than 10 mm long and associated with a tube 4 mm long (or longer: var. megalanthera BURK. n. var.), tube slightly con-tracted at the mouth; lobes growing a little during anthesis, narrowed rapidly at the base by ceasing growth from above downwards. Stamens as described above. Ovary with 9 ridges, 1-2 mm long. Capsule at ripeness to 35 cm long or longer, with perhaps 100 seeds, pendent but not always straight, dehiscing along its whole length. Seeds to 7-9 mm long widening evenly from the attachment to 2-3 mm in width and with 6-7 broken lines on each face, included the wings to 2½ cm long, the wings to 1 cm in width, so placed in the capsule that one seed scarcely overlaps another.
S. dioscoreifolia occurs only in the most evenly humid parts of the Philippines, which parts are towards the eastern ocean; it grows near streams at low elevations. The progress of anthesis is indicated here by the three drawings fig. ld-f. Because in anthesis the tepals progressively move away from their early upright position TAUBERT'S use of their position to define his S. wallisii cannot be justified, nor BECCARI's in defining S. cumin-giana.The blades are poised, as is general in the family, with the acumination pointing downwards. Fl. May & June, Dec. & Jan.
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