C. Koch & Sell., Ind. Sem. Hort. Berol. App.14.1853
P. oxycardium Schott; P. harlowiiJohnston
Narrow-stemmed vine, glabrous, occasionallybranching, widely spreading and dangling from trees at maturity;stems green, with clusters of brown roots to 10 cm long andprominent cataphyll scars; cataphylls ca 10 cm long, pale green,caducous. Petioles 9-25 cm long or more, to 1 cm broad at base,terete, without invagination at base or invaginate to about middle;blades broadly ovate-cordate, 15-36 cm long, 10-27 cm wide,thick, the lobes directed outward or inward and overlapped, thesinus usually 3-7 cm deep, usually deeper than broad; primary veinsin 4 or 5 pairs, the veins extending into the basal lobes united;juvenile plants usually hemiepiphytic and closely appressed, theblades ovate, caudate-acuminate, the upper surface dark green(sometimes reddish-green), glistening with minute, closepapillations, the lower surface somewhat maroon. Peduncles8-10 cm long; spathe green, cuspidate at apex, only slightlybroader at base, 14-16 cm long, red inside especially at base oftube; spadix short-stipitate, the pistillate part ca 6 cm long;stigmas with thin margins. Fruits with numerous seeds, the seedsoblong-ellipsoid, slightly constricted at one end, ca 1 mm long.Croat 7129,10383.
Common, especially along the shore, where it mayfestoon trees or hang long-pendent from tree branches. Probablyflowers and fruits all year.
Not confused with any other species on the island. ThePanamanian material of this species has been assigned to subsp.scandens f. scandens by Bunting (1968).
Throughout Mexico and Central America and much oftropical lowland South America; West Indies. In Panama, known fromtropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Panama,and Darién, from premontane moist forest in Panama (Tocumen),from premontane wet forest in Coclé, and from tropical wetforest in Colón, San Blas, and Chiriqui.
See Fig. 118.
