CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011. araceae.e-monocot.org
Laos Until now only known from the southern region of the Champasak Province, in the Mekong River.
Evergreen herb to 0.85 m tall. Subterranean stem a rhizome, 3–5 ×1.5–2 cm, light brown outside. Cataphylls sheathing separately petiole and peduncle, green with faint pink mottling; petiole 45–85 ×1–2 cm, olive-green with pink mottling and dark carmine stripes; leaf blade pedate; leaflets 5, elliptic, to 25 × 9 cm, margins entire, apex acuminate, ending in an arista to 3 cm long; central leaflet base cuneate, with a petiolule to 4 cm long; lateral leaflets asymmetrical, decreasing a little in size outwards, base convex, shortly petiolulate, glossy green with barely impressed veins above, underside paler. Inflorescence more or less held at foliage level; peduncle to 0.75 m long, thin, green with dark green stripes; spathe tube slightly funnel-shaped, 6–7 × ca 1 cm at the base, pale green outside and white inside, white at the base; spathe mouth margins with broad, yellow-green auricles, ca 2 cm wide; spathe limb ovate, 8–9 × 3–4 cm in the middle, glossy yellow-green, acuminate, ending in a filiform tip to 2 cm long; spadix appendix slightly exserted from the tube, erect, subcylindrical, white-green, with a rounded, even or slightly rugose apex, ca 4 cm long × 3.5 mm wide, sessile, often with a few, short carmine or green bristles above the fertile part; fertile zone staminate or bisexual, ca 4 cm long; staminate flowers 3–4 androus, subsessile, anthers cream, carmine at the top; thecae dehiscing by an oblong pore; pistillate flowers densely arranged; ovaries ovoid, pale green; stigma subsessile, capitate. Infructescence unknown.
Emergent on river banks during the dry season from February to April, in partial sun. Either found sheltered between rocks and big stones or, in sheltered places, growing in sand and gravel and more or less covered by mud.
