Mapania
(probably a native name). SYN. Lepironia (in part). Including Pandanophyllum. ORD. Cyperaceae. A genus embracing about thirty species of stove, perennial, sometimes very tall herbs, dispersed over the tropics. Spikelets many-flowered, borne on the stem or terminating a leafless scape, solitary or few in a sessile head, or rarely numerous and corymbosely paniculate. Leaves fascicled at the base of the stem or on the rhizome, long and rather broad, or ovate-lanceolate, on long petioles. Two species have been introduced. For culture, see Cyperus, on p. 422, Vol. I.
M. lucida (clear). fl., spikelet castaneous, solitary, trigonal-ovoid, 1/2in. to 3/4in. long; scape dark purple, leafless, 2in. to 3in. long. l. trifarious, 6in. to 10in. long, 1 1/4in. to 1 3/4in. broad, three-nerved, narrow-oblong, rounded-cuneate at base, with a cusp 1 1/2in. long at apex; petioles 4in. to 9in. long, channelled, complicate-sheathing at base. Borneo, 1885. (I. H. 1885, 557.) M. Wendlandi (Wendland's). l. arranged in three series, oblong, acuminate, dark green on the upper surface, bronzy-green beneath; petioles blackish-green, deeply channelled. 1885. An ornamental foliage plant. SYN. Pandanophyllum Wendlandi.