Araceae
Pothos

Pothos oxyphyllus Miq.

First published in Fl. Ned. Ind. 3: 181 (1856)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is W. Malesia. It is a climber and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

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: confident
[AERP]

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

Distribution
Malesia: Sumatera, Peninsular Malaysia, Java. Much more common than the rather few collections might suggest.
General Description
Slender, homeophyllous, diffuse-branched root-climbing liane. Shoot system rather poorly differentiated into adherent, non-flowering and free lateral flowering branches, usually with considerable flagellate shoot growth; flowering shoot abbreviated, arising from below the leaf axil of a fully developed leaf, or from an older naked portion of stem, leafless except for subtending foliage leaf, with several small cataphylls; eocaul not observed; seedling shingle-leaved, then abruptly producing adult leaves. LEAVES thinly chartaceous, drying pale brownish green; petiole 2.5–3 cm long, slender, often sheathing stem with just the geniculum and blade spreading; sheath rather prominent, reaching to just below geniculum and extending by two very small ligules; blade 6–25 × 2–8 cm, oblong-elliptic to oblong-lanceolate, very lightly falcate, unequal, occasionally quite strongly so, base subacute to minutely truncate, apex falcate, acuminate to stoutly long-attenuate, briefly minutely apiculate; primary lateral veins arising at 80–90°, intramarginal veins 2 per side, the lowermost arising from the base, outer intramarginal vein remaining very close and parallel to margin; higher venation fine but very distinctly reticulate. INFLORESCENCE solitary, although shoots always reiterating and thus rarely two inflorescences at different stages of maturity may be present; peduncle 1.3–5 cm, rather slender, erect, green to purplegreen. Spathe 1.3–2.2 × 0.3–0.4 cm, oblong-ovate, reflexed, falling early in fruit development leaving only basal portion, base rounded, barely decurrent on the peduncle, apex obtuse, filamentous-mucronate, purple. Spadix sessile to very briefly stipitate; stipe 0–1.5 mm long; fertile portion 2.5–4 × 0.2–0.4 cm, cylindrical, straight to slightly curved, white. Flowers c. 1.5 mm diam., with 6 free tepals and 6 stamens. INFRUCTESCENCE with few berries; fruit 6–10 × 4–7 mm, ellipsoid, ripening deep red; seeds not observed.
Habitat
Primary to slightly disturbed lowland to hill forest, almost always on inundated soils.
[CATE]

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