5. Epipremnum nobile (Schott) Engl.
Epipremnum nobile (Schott) Engl in DC., Monogr. Phanerogam. 2 (1879) 250; Engl. & K. Krause in Engl, Pflanzenr. 37 (IV.23B) (1908) 57. -- Anthelia nobilis Schott, Ann. Mus. Bot. Lugd.-Bat. 1 (1863) 127. -- Type: Indonesia, Sulawesi, near Tondano, Forster (L holo).

Large root-climber to 5 m. Adult plant with stem 5--30 mm diam., internodes 0.5--10 cm long, separated by prominent leaf scars, epidermis smooth, papery, detaching from the underlying tissue in air-dried specimens. Clasping roots sparse, minutely pubescent. Cataphylls and prophylls soon drying and degrading to papery masses then disintegrating to leave a few tough fibres, later falling. Foliage leaves evenly distributed, lower leaves falling and thus leaves tending to become clustered distally. Petiole 34--40 cm x 5--15 mm, canaliculate, smooth, air-drying pale brown; apical geniculum 25--3 x 4--6 mm, basal geniculum 3.5 x 1 cm, both genicula slightly greater in diameter than petiole, drying shrunken to less than petiole diameter and with the apical geniculum almost black; petiolar sheath extending to the base of the apical geniculum, at first sub-membranaceous, soon drying and degrading into long, adherent, scurfy papery strips and robust simple fibres, then falling to leave a prominent, somewhat corky mid-brown scar. Lamina 25--49 x 11--18.5 cm, entire, oblique-oblong to oblique-elliptic or -ovate, slightly falcate, sub-coriaceous, apex acute, apiculate, base unequal, wider side rounded to sub-truncate, narrower side sub-acute, decurrent, air-drying pale to mid-brown with the abaxial surface slightly glaucous; primary lateral veins simple but conspicuously longitudinally grooved basally, 35--40 per side, c. 1 cm distant, diverging from midrib at c. 75°, interprimary veins remaining sub-parallel to primary vein, all higher order venation reticulate, rather conspicuous in dried material; midrib moderately impressed above, triangular and prominently raised beneath, lower order venation flush or nearly so above and beneath in fresh material but intermittently raised and conspicuous in dried specimens. Inflorescences usually several together, first inflorescence subtended by a fully developed foliage leaf often with a much expanded petiolar sheath and a swiftly disintegrating long-attenuate cataphyll, subsequent inflorescences each subtended by a robust prophyll and enclosed by a large long-attenuate cataphyll during development, inflorescences at anthesis naked to partially obscured by sheet-like and solitary fibres. Peduncle 3--6 cm x 4--8 mm, slender, terete, laterally compressed. Spathe canoe-shaped, short to long-beaked, up to 14.5 x 10 cm when pressed flat, exterior dark cream, yellow or orange yellow, interior dull yellow, air-drying mid-brown black. Spadix 8--13.5 x 1.5--2 cm, sessile, cylindrical, bluntly tapering towards the apex, air-drying mid-brown. Flowers 2--14 mm diam.; stamens 4; filaments 5 x 1 mm; anthers narrowly ellipsoid, 3--5 x 0.75--1 mm; ovary 7--9 x 2.5--4 mm, cylindrical, basal part laterally compressed; ovules 4; stylar region 2--2.5 x 2--5 mm, trapezoid in air-dried post-anthesis material, somewhat feeble, apex flattened, margins slightly raised in dry material; stigma slightly elongate, 0.75--1.5 diam., circumferential. Fruit green, stylar region weakly developed. Seeds c. 3 x 4 mm.

Distribution - Indonesia (Sulawesi).

Habitat - Eucalyptus deglupta-dominant rainforest on alluvial soil, stream sides, montane Fagaceae and Eugenia forest. 1000--1700 m.

Note. Alston 15758 (BO) notes "spathe apricot-yellow, sweet scented".