Anthurium dressleri Croat

CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011. araceae.e-monocot.org

Distribution

Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.

Habitat

Tropical wet and premontane rain forest.

General Description

Terrestrial; stem to ca. 25 cm long, 1-2.3 cm diam.; roots moderately few, brown, slender; cataphylls pale green, to 6 cm long, acuminate at apex, drying brown, persisting at upper nodes. LEAVES with petioles erect-spreading; blades held more or less perpendicular to petiole; petioles several ribbed, 8-40 cm long, 5-7 mm wide, narrowly to broadly sulcate adaxially (sometimes bluntly medially ribbed), the adaxial surface sometimes purplish; blades narrowly ovate, acute to acuminate at apex, deeply lobed at base, 20-40 cm long, 11.5-30 cm wide, broadest near the middle; anterior lobe 21-32 cm long, the margins convex; posterior lobes 5-10 cm long, sometimes overlapping, often turned up along inner margins; sinus spathulate, often closed, acute at apex; upper surface matte, dark green, velvety; lower surface matte, much paler; midrib raised above, acutely raised below; basal veins (3-)4-5(-6) pairs, free to base, raised above and below; primary lateral veins 5-6 per side, departing midrib at ca. 55° angle, raised above and below; interprimary veins flat, darker than surface; collective vein arising from the first basal vein, 4-9 mm from the margin. INFLORESCENCE erect, shorter than the leaves; peduncle terete or with several sharp ribs, tinged purple, 7.5-17 cm long; spathe moderately thin, white or greenish white, narrowly ovate to lanceolate, 4.2-8 cm long, 1-3.5 cm wide, broadest in the lower one-third, acuminate to caudate-acuminate at apex, obtuse to cordate at base, inserted at 35° angle on peduncle; spadix pale yellow to yellowish green (B & K Yellow-green 9/2.5), 3.5-7.5 cm long, 6-7 mm diam. at base, 4-5 mm diam. At apex; flowers weakly 4-lobed, 2.5-3.2 mm long, 2.5-3 mm wide, the sides straight to jaggedly sigmoid, ca. 6 flowers in the principal spiral, ca. 10 flowers in the alternate spiral; tepals glossy, weakly punctate, minutely papillate, lateral tepals 0.7-1.5 mm wide, the inner margin broadly convex; pistils green, semiglossy, weakly emergent; stigma ellipsoid, 0.4-0.5 mm long, brush-like with droplets for ca. 1 week before stamens emerge, drying brown; lateral stamens emerging in a rapid sequence from the base, the alternate pairs emerging much later; anthers 0.4-0.5 mm long, ca. 0.8 mm wide, held above the edge of tepals, not completely emergent from beneath tepals; thecae not divaricate; pollen white. INFRUCTESCENCE pendent, to 13 cm long, 1.7 cm diam.; berries irregularly dispersed, obovoid, dark violet purple in apical one-third, white to greenish below, 6-8 mm long, 5 mm diam., round to mamilliform at apex; seeds 2, 4-5 mm long, ca. 3 mm wide, obovoid, white (turning green in age) one end oblique, enveloped in a semi-translucent appendage.