| Field notes | Terrestrial herb to 1.5 m. Rhizome adscending to erect, c. 10 cm, 2-3 cm in diam. Roots up to 1.5 m long and up to 8 mm thick, sometimes with lateral tubers distally (c. 4-6 by 1-1.5 cm). Juvenile plants distinctly petiolate up to half the length of the leaf. Leaves. of mature plants distichous, not petiolate, up to 1.8 m, bases forming a horseshoe with youngest leaves erect, appearing in the middle and oldest sometimes horizontal. Lamina halves undulating 20-30 cm between sinuses, midrib canaliculate, distinctly protruding on lower surface, widest above the middle up to 10.5 cm, dark green, glabrous, thick plastic-like. Inflorescence subterranean arising from rhizome between roots or between the lowermost leaf bases, branched, pale yellowish. Fertile bracts green to brownish-purple. Sepals yellowish green. Lateral petals whitish with purple tips. Labellum black, purplish to brown from base to tip. Smell strong of formic and lactate acid (smelly socks). Fruit embedded in soil, obpyriform with a beak, 6 cm by 2.5 cm, black, 3-locular, opening in three hard valves opening at the middle of the locules. Seeds pyriform, 9 by 5 mm, pale brown in unopened capsule (immature?), arillus 8-13 mm. Material in spirit. Specimen at: SAN, KEP, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah Parks, AAU, L, K, E. |
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