ABSTRACT:

The genus Scaphispatha was published by H. W. Schott in the year 1860 using this name given by A. Brongniart in the herbarium of the Museum National d'Histoire N aturelle in Paris on the sheet of d'Orbigny's type collection from Bolivia. Scaphispatha is monotypic and the single species, Scaphispatha gracilis Brongn. ex Schott, has been collected only four times in the last 150 years. Besides the Bolivian type collection by d 'Orbigny , the three others all came from Brazil; one from Para, and the other two from the same locality in Ceara. Since the inflorescence appears before the leaves, the leaves were unknown until 1977, when living tubers collected by myself in the Serra do Araripe, Ceara, produced leaves in cultivation in the Botanischer Garten Mlinchen. Now it is possible to give a full description of this rare aroid.