1120

 Phrynium pubinerve Blume

Synonym	:	Phrynium malaccense Ridl.
Family	:	Marantaceae
Flowering and fruiting period	:	April to July
Distribution	:	India, Myanmar, Indochina, Malaysia, Borneo, Indonesia (Sumatra, Java), Philippines, and New Guinea. In India, it is common in Southern Western Ghats and Andaman Islands.
Key botanical characters:   Rhizomes tuberous. Leafy shoot 1–2 m long, sometimes forming dense clusters upto several meters in diameter. Leaves 2–5 per shoot; Basal leaves several; cauline leaf 1; sheath 20–38 cm long, a pale grey hairy light green, with, lanose indumentum. Petiole 25–60 cm long. light green; surface hairy; pulvinous 4–7 cm, glabrous; lamina ovate-oblong 22–65 × 9–26 cm, green above, light green beneath,  glabrous, slightly plicate along the primary veins. Inflorescence interfoliar, erect, sessile, densely or laxly capitate synflorescence, 5–10 cm diameter. Bracts oblong lanceolate, 3.9–4 × 2.2–2.3 cm, partially sheathing the entire synflorescence, colour varies from light green to dark brown, woody, distal part quickly withering and dissolving in to a decaying fibrous mesh. Some plants showing hairy bracts. Flower pairs 2–5 per special paraclade; interphylls c. 1.9 × 0.6 cm, glabrous or hairy, membraneous, white margin hyaline, transparent. Flowers pinkish-purplish white, c. 2.2 cm long. Fruits bright red, shiny, pyriform, c. 1 cm, slightly 3-angled, exocarp hard; seeds 2 or 3, shallowly groved.