Epipremnum amplissimum (Schott) Engl.

Engler, H.G.A. (1881) Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 1 : 182.

Vine stem diameters to 3 cm recorded. Stem bark pale and corky. Adventitious roots usually present and even the roots are clothed in pale corky bark.

Leaf blades about 60-90 x 16-32 cm, petioles about 40-65 cm long, winged over most of the length. Venation +/- parallel with about 15 major lateral veins and numerous smaller veins running from the midrib towards the leaf blade margin. Major lateral veins +/- depressed on the upper surface of the leaf blade. 'Oil dots' more readily apparent when viewed from the upper surface.

Spathe cream, about 20-25 cm long, enclosing a spadix about 20 cm long. Flowers densely packed, each about 7 mm diam. Stamens difficult to allocate, about 10-12 per flower. Stamens about 7 mm long, filament flattened, about 3 mm long, attached to the full length of the back of the anther. Ovary about 11 mm long. Stigma flat, about 1-2 mm wide. Rhaphides numerous. Ovules about 5 per ovary.

Infructescence about 20-22 cm long on a stalk about 7 cm long. Each individual fruit, i.e. the product of each flower, about 14-17 x 8 mm. Flesh surrounding the seeds somewhat fibrous. Seeds 1 or 2 per fruit, each seed about 7 x 4-5 mm. Embryo curved, about 3 mm long.

First leaves elliptic, apex acuminate, base obtuse, petiole relatively long, (almost as long as the leaf blade). Petiole winged and the base of the petiole clasps the stem. Petiole wings longitudinally veined. At the tenth leaf stage: leaf blades lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, apex acute, base mostly obtuse. Petioles winged, particularly towards the base. Lateral veins quite numerous, +/- longitudinal, arising from the midrib in the basal half of the leaf blade and departing from it at a low angle, about 10-20 degrees. Adventitious roots quite numerous, produced at each node or point of leaf attachment. Seed germination time 86 days.

Occurs in NT, CYP and NEQ. Altitudinal range quite small, from near sea level to 25 m. Grows in swampy situations often in open forest areas but also in rain forest areas. Also occurs in New Guinea and the Pacific islands.