A flora of Manila - Rainforestation

128
A FLORA OF MANILA
with acute valvate tips. Ovary 1-celled. Fruit ovoid to oblong, red;
pericarp fibrous. Seed vv^ith ruminate albumen. (From the Malabar
name.)
Species about 35, tropical Asia to Australia, 7 in the Philippines.
*1. A. CATECHU L. Bunga (Tag.) ; Betel-nut Palm.
Trunk erect, slender, up to 25 m high, marked with annular scars.
Leaves up to 5 m long, the leaflets numerous, 60 to 90 long, the upper ones
confluent. Spadix much-branched, the branches filiform above, bearing
very numerous, somewhat distichous male flowers which are yellow and
about 5 mm long. Female flowers at the bases of the branches and in
the axils, 1 cm long or more. Fruit ovoid, smooth, red, 4 to 6 cm long,
the pericarp somewhat fleshy, the mesocarp fibrous. (Fl. Filip. pi. 350.}
Commonly cultivated, fl. all the year; throughout the Philippines in
cultivation, certainly of prehistoric introduction. India to Malaya, fre-
quently only cultivated; probably a native of India.
16. ARACEAE (Arum or Gabi Family)
Perennial plants from rhizomes or fleshy corms, with radical leaves, suffrutescent
or woody vines, or in one genus aquatic and floating. Leaves
alternate, various. Flowers 1- or 2-sexual, sessile on a spadix which is
more or less enclosed by a green, white, or colored spathe, if 1-sexual the
males usually above the females, neuter flowers often between them. Perianth
none, or of 4 to 6 scale-like segments. Anthers 2- to 4-celled.
OVary sessile, 1- to 3-celled; ovules 1 or more. Fruit baccate, 1- to many-
seeded.
Genera 110, species more than 1,000, in all parts of the world, chiefly
tropical, 20 genera and about 65 species in the Philippines.
1. Coarse climbing vines with large, entire or pinnately lobed leaves.
2. Leaves not mottled; ovaries sub-2-celled, many ovuled.
1. Raphidophora
2. Leaves pale-green, mottled with yellowish-green or nearly white spots
and blotches; ovaries 1-celled, 1-ovuled 2. Scindapsus
1. Erect plants, never climbing.
2. Lettuce-like plants floating on fresh water; leaves and petioles not
defined 3. Pistia
2. Terrestrial plants.
3. Plants from very aromatic rootstocks, the leaves linear, flat, equitant
4. Acorus
3. Plants from large globose corms, the flowers appearing before the
leaves, the spathes very large; leaves long-petioled, the blade
deeply 3-parted, spreading 5. Amorphophallus
3. Leaves and flowers borne at the same time; plants with broad simple
leaves.
4. Ovaries 2- or 3-celled; cultivated plants with variegated leaves.
6. Caladium
4. Ovaries 1-celled.
5. Ovules 1 or 2 ; anther-cells larger than the connective.
7. Typhonium
5. Ovules few to many.
6. Ovules few, basal 8. Alocasia
6. Ovules many, parietal 9. Colocasia