Araceae
Culcasia

Culcasia ekongoloi Ntépé-Nyamè

First published in Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat., B, Adansonia 1984: 316 (1984)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is W. Central Tropical Africa to Nigeria. It is a climber and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

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

Distribution
Nigeria, Cameroon, Gabon, Central African Republic, Zaire
Diagnostic
By the minute stigma, the frequent sympodial branching of the finely (‘tubéreuse’) [verrucose] stem, the ascending venation, this species is very close to Culcasia insulana, but it differs principally by the existence of a network of holey parenchyma, and by the stipitate spadix.
Habitat
In Cameroon, this species is abundant in gallery forest in regions in the west, Adamaoua, and it seems, towards Dschang; to a lesser degree, and doubtfully in the regions of Ntem and Dja, in humid gallery forest.
General Description
Plant creeping, then climbing to 6 m above the ground; Anchor roots short, 0.5-3 cm; Stem densely and finely verrucose, 2-5 mm thick when dry; branching generally sympodially into 2 unequal branches, the shorter one, 2-3 cm, most often becoming the flowering shoot; Internodes 2-9 cm. LEAVES: Petiole 7-11 cm; Sheath spreading and ending abruptly, 1-3 cm from the apex of the petiole; Blade 10-22 x 4-8 cm, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, very assymetric, base cuneiform to obtuse, shortly decurrent on the petiole, apex shortly acuminate, curved in a scythe shape; 4-7 pairs of primary veins, shortly ascending; Dense network of secondary veins and veinlets as prominent as the primary veins; In each mesh, a translucent network corresponding to a holey parenchyma; Glandular lines or dots absent o3r rarely present on the lower surface of the blade, which is generally thick and waxy. INFLORESCENCES terminal, 1-6; Peduncles generally almost as long as the petioles, 3-9 cm, often borne on a very short floral shoot; Spathe, 2-3 cm, green, acuminate, not constricted at the base, rapidly caducous; spadix cream, included, stipe thick, 2-7 mm long; Stigma small, ca. ¼ of the apex of the ovary, unilocular, uniovulate; Ovule campylotropous. INFRUCTESCENCE: Berries green, then orange, finally red.
[CATE]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: low confidence
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • 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

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. 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 2024. 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

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images