Araceae

Filarum Nicolson

First published in Brittonia 18: 348 (1967)
This genus is accepted
The native range of this genus is W. South America.

Descriptions

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

Diagnostic
Small tuberous geophyte; leaf blade entire, cordate, fine venation reticulate; spathe much shorter than spadix; flowers unisexual, perigone absent; female zone of spadix adnate to spathe, spadix with slender terminal appendix. Differs from Zomicarpella in having prolonged, thread-like stamen connectives, tuberous stems and 1-ovulate ovaries.
General Description
HABIT : small herbs, tuber subglobose. LEAVES : few. PETIOLE : sheath short. BLADE : entire, cordate; primary lateral veins 3 per side, arising from petiole insertion, lower 2 pairs retrorse, all arcuately curving upwards forming submarginal collective vein, marginal vein distinct, higher order venation reticulate. INFLORESCENCE : 1-2 in each floral sympodium, appearing with leaves. PEDUNCLE : slender, longer or shorter than petiole. SPATHE : persistent, oblong-lanceolate, pale green. SPADIX : very slender, much longer than spathe, female zone adnate to spathe, few-flowered, male zone elongate, purple, sparsely flowered, with a very few sterile rudimentary flowers occurring above and below male zone, appendix slender, naked, elongate. FLOWERS : unisexual, perigone absent. MALE FLOWER : 1-androus, filaments very short, anthers nearly sessile, connective extremely long and drawn out into a filiform flexuose thread, thecae globose, dehiscing by apical pore. POLLEN : inaperturate, spherical, small to medium-sized (mean 21 µm.), exine spinose. FEMALE FLOWER : ovary oblong, 1-locular, ovule 1, anatropous, placenta basal, style attenuate, stigma small, subcapitate. BERRY : subglobose to globose, smooth, bearing the style and stigma remains. SEED : ellipsoid, testa thin, smooth, punctate, embryo ellipsoid, endosperm absent.
Distribution
W. South America.
Habitat
Tropical humid forest; geophytes, forest floor.
[CATE]

Sources

  • CATE Araceae

    • Haigh, A., Clark, B., Reynolds, L., Mayo, S.J., Croat, T.B., Lay, L., Boyce, P.C., Mora, M., Bogner, J., Sellaro, M., Wong, S.Y., Kostelac, C., Grayum, M.H., Keating, R.C., Ruckert, G., Naylor, M.F. and Hay, A., CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011.
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0