Rhaphidophora Hassk. comprises of ca. 100 species of small to large, occasionally enormous, root-climbing lianes, rarely rheophytes, distributed from tropical West Africa eastwards to the western Pacific, north to southern Japan (Ryukyu Islands), and south to Northern Australia. Rhaphidophora is one of the largest aroid genera in tropical Asia.
Rhaphidophora has plants that retain their neotenic (juvenile) appearance and those that transform to have leaves that are large, entire, split, fenestrated or both. Also, some species shingle (grow appressed to the climbing surface, especially in the juvenile stage), and others have erect leaves.
You will find them climbing on tree trunks, rocks, and rarely fast-moving water in these places. And they grow in well-drained tropical and subtropical wet and humid areas. Typical habitats include those moderate seasonal drying to established, secondary evergreen forests in low to mid montane altitudes.
Genus name Rhaphidophora vomes from Greek words rhaphis or rhaphidos, meaning needle, and phérō, which means to bear. It comes from the fact that they have needle-like (up to 1cm) trichosclereids that protect the plants from herbivores.
