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Myrmecodia pendens, Southern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.


Derrick

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Myrmecodia pendens Merrill & Perry published in Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 26(1) 1945.

Description after Huxley & Jebb 1993.  A rather small delicate species that is particularly spiny on both tuber and stem and is readily identified by its white-crested ridges.

Tuber spherical to cylindrical, (often) growing pendent when mature, c.17 x 6 cm, shiny dark brown with white-edged ridges that tend to run tuber length; swollen areas with pores over honeycombing, spines mainly on ridges but no entrance holes.

Habitat on edge of upper mixed forests, Oak Quercus forests and Antarctic Beech Nothofagus forests, also in secondary or disturbed forests, savannahs or isolated trees at altitudes of 1200- 1700 m. (3937-5577 ft.)  Often occurring with M. schlechteri but the distinct clypeoli of M. pendens provide an easy diagnostic feature.

Collections made in Southern and Eastern Highlands Provinces as well as Central and Milne Bay Provinces, PNG.

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bonjour

 

it's a shame we do not see the alveoli and the clypeoli :(

 

and the flower corolla ( with the anther-stigma-ring hair position)

 

in the arnold arboretum journal , 2 different specimen seem  existed  with some different morphologicals caracters

 

 

jeff

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This plant was high in a tree at the edge of a very steep bank sloping down to a river some hundreds of feet below.  It was growing among numerous other plants that were probably of the Myrmecodia schlechteri species complex and I was not even aware that I may have photographed something new to me until I was able to see my images on a computer screen after returning home.  To get perfect flower images all one must do is spend some months in the mountains of Papua New Guinea preferably with an armed police escort (very very expensive.)  Furthermore, climbing gear is essential if one is to get close to high perched specimens. 

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Bonjour

 

I agree well   DERRICK , it is not easy.

 

these 2 M.pendens specimen

 

the  variation see on  the first sheet

 

"leaf-bearing stem and a cross-section of the tuberous base : the latter is approximately 8cm in diameter , closely costate, and armed with slender , simple, and only very occasionally branched spines . The stem is about 15cm long , thickly beset with stouter simple spines and here and there spines with 1-3 branches.

In the flower the stamens are at the apex of the tube , but the style is long enough so that the stigma is located in the midst of the opening anthers; the flowers examined have 4 locules "

 

the variation see on the second sheet

 

" tuberous base covered with branching spines, the stem also hasbranching spines around the alveoli forming a sort of protective cover , and the clypeoli are more or less confluent around the alveoli with occasional branching spines , but the stem does not give the impression of being densely spiny as the other specimen; in the flower the anters are low in the corolla tube and the style is just long enough to hold the stigma in the region of the anthers; the ovary is six loculed and there are only very small tufts of hair  in the corolla below the stamens "

 

jeff

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The plant on the second sheet was described as M. pendula sp nov., by Merrill & Perry in the Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 26(1) 1945.  However, Huxley & Jebb in their 1993 revision treat this as a synonym for M. schlechteri.  Certainly other nearby plants (my image follows) were probably of the schlechteri taxa complex that were very common throughout much of the highlands.

"The distinctive characters of this species (pendula) are the branching spines of both the tuberous base and the stem, the somewhat confluent clypeoli, the rather obviously uncinulate corolla-lobes, the bud tapering toward the apex, the anthers low in the tube, beneath them the very scanty tufts of hairs, the short style, and the 6-loculed ovary. Both Myrmecodia pendens and M. pendula were collected from the same branch and were intended to show variation; the photograph shows "detached plants hanging by the long roots by which they dangled in their treetop home." (Merrill & Perry 1945.)

 

237c Myrmecodia probably of the schlechteri taxa complex near Mendi, Southern Highlands Province, PNG..JPG]

post-3-0-55000900-1395782059_thumb.jpg

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