DROSPATHELLA, NEW GENUS OF VENEZUELAN ARACEAE George S. Bunting Recent explorations of the Territorio Federal Amazonas of Vene-zuela have revealed the limited distribution of a singular, dimin-utive aroid of wet savannas. It has slender, entire, oblong or elliptic leaf blades on elongate petioles, and long attenuate spathes. Because of its unilocular ovary with two, basally fixed ovules, it was originally described in the Asian genus Cyrtosperma (as C. wur -dackii Bunting) . However, the seeds of Cyrtosperma have endosperm, while those of closely allied American genera lack it. The inclusion of this species in Urospatha has been considered, but that American genus is characterized by an incompletely bilocular ovary with two or more ovules per locule fixed centrally on the partition, and by leaf blades of a very distinctive, sagittate form. [The unilocular and uniovulate condition of the pistils of U. savannarum Steyerm. (Fieldiana, Bot . 28: 102. 1951) has not been verified.] Since this Amazonian species does not conform to either of these genera, a new genus is proposed to accommodate it. Drospathella Bunting, gen. nov. TYPE: Urospathella wurdackii (Bun-ting) Bunting. Urospathae Schott affinis, a quo pistillorum ovario uniloculari, loculo biovu-lato, ovulis prope basim loculi affixis, spatha longissime attenuata nunquam torta, setninis verrucosis ut videtur sine endospermio, et foliorum lamina anguste lineari vel elliptica sine lobis posticis differt. The form of the ovule also seems to be distinctive, having the funiculus inserted at the center of the ovule, nearly perpendicular to its axis. Drospathella wurdackii (Bunting) Bunting, comb. nov. Cyrtosperma wurdackii Bunting, Acta Bot. Venez. 10: 285. 1975. TYPE: Maguire & Wurdack 36384 (holotype, NY). Venezuela. Amazonas: Rio Guainia, "sabanita" along Cano Pimichin on right bank, I km above Pimichin, lAO m, lU Nov. 1953. PARATYPE : Maguire & Cowan 30566 (NY). Vene-zuela. Amazonas: Cerro Yapacana, rio Orinoco, Savanna no. 3, NW base of mountain, 130 m, I Jan. 1951. The spathe of this species is long attenuate but not bifid as stated in the original description. The spathe Jji vivo is probably not flat and splits as a result of pressure during the drying process, thereby creating the bifid spathe seen in some herbarium specimens. Distribution: west-central Territorio Federal Amazonas of Vene-zuela and adjacent Colombia (Vaupes). 391
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