Anthurium bushii Croat

Description based on dried material only.

Description based on dried material only. Epiphytic; stem and cataphylls unknown. Petioles 8 cm long, 7 mm diam., D-shaped, with medial rib and the margins sharply raised adaxially, probably rounded abaxially; geniculum conspicuously thicker and somewhat darker than petiole, 0.7 cm long. Blades subcoriaceous, oblanceolate, narrowly acute at apex, very long-attenuate at base, ca. 100 cm long, 18.5 cm wide, broadest above the middle, the margins moderately undulate; both surfaces matte, grayish green, slightly paler below; midrib more or less acutely raised above, slightly paler than surface, broadly convexly raised and brownish below; primary lateral veins ca. 21 per side, departing midrib at 40–50 degree angle, usually straight, sometimes weakly arcuate to the margin, conspicuously raised above and below, the same color as the midrib; tertiary veins weakly visible, flat to weakly raised above and below; collective vein absent. Inflorescences erect; peduncle 36 cm long, ca. 2 mm diam., 4.5 times as long as petiole, drying the same color as midrib, terete. Spathe spreading-ascending, subcoriaceous, purple, drying brown, lanceolate, 8 cm long, ca. 1.3 cm wide, acuminate at apex (the acumen inrolled, 13 mm long), narrowly acute at base. Spadix drying brownish, oblong-cylindroid, slightly curved, 12 cm long, ca. 4 mm diam. midway; flowers square to rhombic, ca. 4–7 flowers visible in principal spiral; tepals more or less smooth; lateral tepals 4 mm wide, the inner margins broadly convex, the outer margins 2-sided; anthers 0.4–0.5 mm long, 0.6 mm wide; thecae slightly divaricate. Infructescence not seen.

Anthurium bushii is known only from the type collection from the Province of Morona﷓Santiago, where it was collected in the Serrania de Cutucú at 1,300 m in a premontane moist forest life zone. This species is characterized by its very long, oblong﷓oblanceolate blades which dry grayish green and are very long﷓tapered in the lower third, and by its purplish spathe and slender, cylindroid spadix which dries brown. This species is probably most closely related to A. harlingianum, which differs in having proportionately broader leaf blades which are mostly truncate to shallowly cordate at the base and usually dry brown.

Anthurium bushii is a species of plant in the arum family, Araceae. It is endemic to Ecuador. It is known only from the type locality in Morona-Santiago Province. It is an epiphyte which grows in the forests of the lower Andes.