Anthurium cerrobaulense Matuda,

Anales Inst. Biol.Univ.Nac. Mexico 30: 112-113.1960. TYPE: Mexico. Oaxaca: Cerro Baul (on the border of Oaxaca and Chiapas NW of Río de Oro located on Hwy. 190), November 15, 1957, MacDougall 276 (MEXU, holotype).

Epiphyte or on rocks, rarely terrestrial 17-40 m tall; stems 2.5-4 cm diam.; leaf scars 1-2 cm wide; roots 4-5 mm diam., tan, descending; cataphylls 2-5 cm long, green tinged with red-violet, rounded at apex with a subapical apiculum extending beyond the apex ca. 3 mm, drying medium brown and weathering into fibers.

LEAVES erect-spreading; petiole 15-45 cm long, 3-6 mm diam., broadly and sharply sulcate adaxially, rounded abaxially (sometimes tinged with red-violet); geniculum 1-1.7 cm long; blades ovate to triangular (when flattened), often with midrib arching upward, thick, acute at apex, broadly lobed at base, (10)23-37 cm long, 13-18.5 cm wide, broadest at point of attachment or just below (often broader at base when flattened); anterior lobe 14-25.5 cm long, the margins convex at base becoming straight or markedly concave; posterior lobes 7-13 cm long, directed upward at almost 90° angle or directed outward when flattened, the upper surface glossy, lower surface semiglossy; midrib convexly raised to midway, then sunken to apex, sharply raised nearly to apex below, then sunken; basal veins 3-5 pairs, the first free to base, the third to fifth coalesced 4-5 cm, raised and darker than surface above and below, the posterior rib naked, the outer margin rolled up; primary lateral veins 5-9 per side, departing the midrib at 45° angle, sunken above, prominulous and darker than surface below; interprimary veins sunken, lesser veins scarcely visible; collective vein arising from the first basal vein, sometimes loop-connected with the third or fourth basal vein, 0.5-1.5 cm from margin, sunken above, raised below.

INFLORESCENCE erect-spreading; peduncle 22-40 cm long, 4—5 mm diam., terete, pale green; spathe relatively thin, green sometimes tinged with violet, lanceolate, 2.3-5 cm long, 1.2-1.7 cm wide, broadest just above the base, abruptly acuminate al apex, inserted at 45° angle on peduncle; the stipe 6 mm long in front, 2 mm long in back, pale green sometimes tinged with red at base of spadix; spadix green, heavily tinged red-violet along inner edges of tepals, 4-4.4 cm long, 7-8 mm diam. at base, 4-5 mm diam. At apex; the flowers 4-lobed, ca. 3 mm long, 3.5 mm wide, the sides sigmoid; 5-8 flowers visible per principal spiral, 3-6 flowers visible in the alternate spiral; tepals matte, with copious droplets when stamens are emerging; lateral tepals 1.2-1.5 mm wide, the inner margin turned up; pistil slightly emergent, purple; stigma a shallow depression; stamens developing from the base, the laterals followed by the alternates in rapid succession, with the leading spirals preceding the alternates by 1 or 2 spirals; stamens held above pistil on transparent filaments 0.4-0.6 mm long, 0.6-0.9 mm wide, then retracting to edge of tepals before next one appears; anthers pale yellow; thecae ± oblong, somewhat divaricate; pollen cream, soon dispersing.

INFRUCTESCENCE spreading-pendent; spathe persisting; spadix 9.5-12 cm long, 2.3 cm diam.; immature berries emergent ca. 4 mm, dull violet-purple; mature berries red, to red-orange, obovoid, mammilliform at apex, 1.5-1.6 cm long, 1-1.7 cm wide, mesocarp thickly gelatinuous to mealy with numerous short raphide cells; seeds 1-2, obovoid, green to yellow-green, 9-10 mm long, 7.6-8 mm wide, flattened, with a flattened truncate gelatinous appendage at the base. Figs. 31, 32, and 34.

Anthurium cerrobaulense is restricted to Mexico in the SW corner of Chiapas in the Municipios of Cintalapa and Arriaga at elevations of 830 to 1,600 m in "bosque pino-Encino." The species is tentatively placed in section Belolonchium and is distinguished by its thick leaf blades with usually prominent, elongate, narrow posterior lobes that are directed usually upward at an angle of 45° to 90° to the midrib, and also by its relatively much paler lower blade surface with only obscurely visible tertiary veins. Anthurium cerrobaulense is most easily confused with A. chamulense, which has leaves of similar coloration and texture, but that species is distinguished by having the blades merely subcordate or by having the posterior lobes merely rounded.

Map of Mesoamerican specimens with coordinates