Aglaonema marantifolium Blume

Aglaonema marantifolium Blume, 1837

Arum aquaticum Rumphius, 1747, p. 312, pl. 108.

Adpendix erecta Rumphius, 1747, p. 487, pl. 182: fig. 2.

Calla oblongifolia Roxburgh, 1814, p. 65.

Aglaonema oblongifolium (Roxburgh) Kunth, 1841, p. 55 [not Schott, 1829].

Scindapsus erectus Presl, 1851 [“1849”], p. 242.

Aglaonema novoguineense Engler, 1898, p. 2.

Stem erect or reclining in larger plants, 1–3 cm thick. Internodes to 2 cm long. Petioles (18) 21–31 cm long, (0.6) 0.8–1.0 (1.1) times as long as the leaf-blade. Sheaths with membranous margins, (11) 15–20 (25) cm long, (0.4 0.6–0.8 times as long as the petiole. Leaf-blades narrowly oblong, occasionally oblong, narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, (22) 25–33 (40) cm long, (7.5) 10–15 (18) cm wide, length/width ratio 1: (2.2) 2.5–3.4; base obtuse to subrounded; apex acuminate, sometimes subrounded, obtuse or abruptly acuminate, often apiculate; variegation none; venation undifferentiated to weakly differentiated into 5–8 primary lateral veins diverging from the midrib at (30°) 40°–50° (65°); texture coriaceous. Peduncles 2–5 together, rarely solitary, (10) 13–19 (21) cm long, commonly about 0.5 the length of the petioles. Spathe green, turning yellow and withering in age, 4–7 (to 9 in fresh material) cm long, decurrent for 0.3–0.8 (1.0) cm. Stipe (0.7) 0.9–1.6 cm long. Spadix shorter than spathe by 0.3 the length of the spathe or more, 1.7–3.0 (to 4 in fresh material) cm long; pistillate portion 0.2–0.8 cm long, pistils 10–17 (22), the pistil with broad yellow stigma, the style distinctly contracted; staminate portion 1.2–2.0 (to 3 in fresh material) cm long. Fruits becoming bright red, 1.5–3.0 cm long, 0.7–1.7 cm wide. Seed clavate, to 2.5 cm long and 1.2 cm thick in fresh material.

TYPE COLLECTIONS.—Amboina, Zippel s.n. (lectotype: L); Banda, Peitsch s.n. (syntype: L). Blume (1837) noted that Zippel’s specimen was mutilated (a piece of a leaf and a small piece of stem with six inflorescences attached). Peitsch’s specimen is more complete but is sterile, and therefore I have selected Zippel’s specimen as lectotype.

DISTRIBUTION.—Moluccas through New Guinea (Figure 2).

HABITAT.—Shady, damp places in lowland rain forests.

FLOWERING TIME.—Apparently nonseasonal.

Both Arum aquaticum and Adpendix erecta are typified by the pertinent Rumphian plates. Rumphius described Arum aquaticum as being decumbent with half the stem lying on the ground and half erect. He placed Adpendix erecta among the climbing aroids but noted that it does not fasten itself to trees but lazily lies on neighboring bushes. There is no difference between them as Merrill (1917, p. 217) recognized when he stated: “The figures and descriptions of both the Rumphian species cited above agree closely with Aglaonema oblongifolium Kunth [=A. marantifolium] as currently interpreted.”

Calla oblongifolia is based on Arum aquaticum Rumphius. Most binomials in Roxburgh’s Hortus Bengalensis are nomina nuda but a footnote to Calla oblongifolia refers to the description and place of Rumphius. It is interesting to note that Roxburgh (1814) reports that his plant was introduced from the Moluccas by C[hristopher] Smith in 1798. Even Roxburgh’s drawing, published by Wight (1844), is Aglaonema marantifolium and not A. nitidum as most workers have assumed.

The Roxburghian epithet was transferred to Aglaonema by Kunth (1841), thus creating a later homonym of the superfluous name Aglaonema oblongifolium Schott (1829) (see A. nitidum for details).

Scindapsus erectus is based on Adpendix erecta Rumphius.

Aglaonema marantifolium f. robustum Engler (1883, p. 291) is based on Beccari, P.P. 798 from Andai, site of a small village formerly about 20 kilometers south of Manokwari in West New Guinea. The name, however, was published without a description. Study of the original and other collections from the same general locality do not warrant validation of the forms, which Engler (1915) later ignored.

The type of Aglaonema novoguineense is: Territory of New Guinea, Suor Mana [vicinity of Astrolabe Bay?], 700 m, 12 June 1896, Lauterbach 325 (lectotype: B). In the original description six syntypes were listed, all at Berlin. Only one remains and I have designated it as lectotype. The segregation of this species is probably largely due to Engler’s overemphasis on the relative and subjective characteristic of strength of venation. He (1915) placed A. novoguineense in his classification as having subequal, thin, dense, subparallel primary venation and A. marantifolium as having primary veins slightly stronger (“paullum validiores”) than the secondary veins. This distinction does not exist and even the type of A. novoguineense would key out to A. marantifolium either in Engler’s or my own key.

Aglaonema marantifolium Blume is most closely related to A. philippinense, A. densinervium, and A. commutatum. Study of herbarium material suggests that A. philippinense may be intermediate between A. marantifolium and A. simplex, that A. densinervium may be an overgrown intermediate between A. marantifolium and A. nitidum, and that A. commutatum may be a subapomictic complex of variegated forms in which A. marantifolium has participated along with other species. In the Moluccas and New Guinea all the specimens consistently have the spathe much longer than the rather aborted spadix, a shortly decurrent spathe, and a distinctly elongated stripe, usually much exceeding the length of the spathe decurrency. The specimens, however, from the Talaud Islands have rather short stripes, but they are longer enough than the spathe decurrency so that they can be included in A. marantifolium in its narrowest sense.

Field work in the Philippines, Celebes, and Moluccas, particularly if combined with cytological studies and breeding experiments, would be extremely desirable to determine whether or not, or to what extent, A. marantifolium is capable of interbreeding with other taxa.