Primrosemalanga, Badu, Coro, Otó Essentially acaulescent plant, most parts densely short-villous (upper leaf surface only moderately so); roots shallow, with many fine smaller roots, to 3 cm broad; cataphylls to about 20 cm long, prominently 2-ribbed. Petioles fleshy, 15-40 cm long, vaginate-winged to near middle or beyond, then terete; blades mostly cordate-ovate, cuspidate-acuminate at apex, thin, sometimes mottled with white spots, the basal sinus open to closed with the basal lobes often overlapping, the medial vein of lobes marginal at apex of sinus; major veins impressed above, 4 or 5 pairs above sinus, the collecting vein prominent. Peduncles usually shorter than leaves, to 33 cm long; spathe to 17 cm long, the tube green, the blade white, ca 10 cm long, to 4.5 cm wide when open, usually purplish within near mouth of tube; spadix 13 cm long, the fertile staminate part 5-7 cm long, the sterile staminate part purple-violet, the pistillate part ca 3 cm long; fruiting inflorescences nearly globular. Fruits +/- obovoid, to ca 7 mm diam, whitish, the blade opening or weathering away by the time the fruits mature; seeds many, irregular, +/- elliptic, white, ca 1 mm long. Croat 11256. Apparently restricted to open areas in the vicinity of the laboratory, often locally abundant. Plants usually disappear during the dry season and reappear with the onset of the rains. Flowers chiefly from May to October, the fruits developing within about 1 month. Costa Rica to Colombia. In Panama, ecologically variable; known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Chiriqui, Veraguas, Panama, and Darién, from tropical dry forest in Panama, from premontane moist forest in Los Santos and Panama, from premontane wet forest in Chiriqui, Coclé, and Panama, and from premontane rain forest in Darién. See Fig. 127.