''Rhaphidophora'' is a genus in the family

Araceae The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). Also ...

, occurring from tropical Africa eastwards through

Malesia Malesia is a biogeographical region straddling the Equator and the boundaries of the Indomalayan and Australasian realms. It is a phytogeographical floristic region in the Paleotropical kingdom. It was first recognized as a distinct region ...

and

Australasia Australasia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising Australia, New Zealand (overlapping with Polynesia), and sometimes including New Guinea and surrounding islands (overlapping with Melanesia). The term is used in a number of different context ...

to the Western Pacific. The genus consists of approximately 100 species.

Description

This is a genus of evergreen, robust, climbing plants. The flowers are bisexual, lacking a

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower. It is a structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepal ...

. The

spathe In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also look ...

is shed after flowering. The

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the sporangium, megasporangium), ...

s number eight or more and are superposed on two (rarely 3) parietal placentas of the

ovary The ovary () is a gonad in the female reproductive system that produces ova; when released, an ovum travels through the fallopian tube/ oviduct into the uterus. There is an ovary on the left and the right side of the body. The ovaries are end ...

. The flowers produce many, ellipsoid, straight seeds with a brittle and smooth outer coat (testa). These are hemiepiphytes, plants capable of beginning life as a seed and sending roots to the soil, or beginning as a terrestrial plant that climbs a tree and then sends roots back to the soil. In rare cases they are terrestrial rheophytes (plants that grow in fast-flowing water). Their

bast fiber Bast fibre (also called phloem fibre or skin fibre) is plant fibre collected from the phloem (the "inner bark", sometimes called "skin") or bast surrounding the stem of certain dicotyledonous plants. Some of the economically important bast fibr ...

s have typically abundant, long and slender

trichosclereid Trichosclereids are hard needlelike branched cells found in some species of plants that serve the purpose of protecting the plant from herbivores. They are usually approximately 6 mm (1/4 inch) long, but in some species they grow to as long ...

s, merging with the fibers of the

sclerenchyma The ground tissue of plants includes all tissues that are neither dermal nor vascular. It can be divided into three types based on the nature of the cell walls. This tissue system is present between the dermal tissue and forms the main bulk of th ...

. If the blade of the leaf is torn, many hairs become apparent. The leaf stalks bend abruptly at their top. The leaf margin is entire. The leaves are

pinnatifid Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

to pinnatisect (cut with deep opposite lobing). The leaf venation is parallel (with veins running parallel for the length of the leaf), pinnate (one mid-vein with smaller veins branching off laterally) to reticulate (feather-veined).

Heterotypic synonyms

* ''Raphidophora'' Hassk., Tijdschr. Natuurl. Gesch. Physiol. 9: 168 (1842), orth. var. * ''Afrorhaphidophora'' Engl. in H.G.A.Engler & K.A.E.Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam., Nachtr. 3: 31 (1906).

Taxonomy

Research on the

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle, organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant cell, plant and algae, algal cells. Chloroplasts have a high concentration of chlorophyll pigments which captur ...

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

sequence data (trnL-F) has shown that ''Rhaphidophora'' and ''Epipremnum'' are

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

, forming three informal groups with other genera of the paraphyletic tribe ''Monstereae''. This may result in taxonomic changes in this genus. The genera ''Rhaphidophora'', ''Epipremnum'', and ''Monstera'' are poorly differentiated. One cultivar, ''Rhaphidophora excelsa'' `Exotica' has been recognized.Aroid cultivar registry
File:Shingle Plant.JPG, ''Rhaphidophora korthalsii'' File:Rhaphiodophora pertusa-BSI-yercaud-salem-India.JPG, ''Raphidophora pertusa'' File:Rhaphidophora cryptantha P4218402.jpg, ''Rhaphidophora cryptantha'' File:Raphidorphora decursiva (14617626995).jpg, ''Raphidorphora decursiva''

Species

The following is a list of all 105 species accepted by

Plants of the World Online Plants of the World Online (POWO) is an online taxonomic database published by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. History Following the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew launched Plants of the World Online i ...

References

* * * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q2666273 Araceae genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot