AMORPHOPHALLUS BANGKOKENSIS
Photo by Alan Galloway
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Thailand | CENTRAL: Krung Thep Maha Nakhon (Bangkok) (type: Kerr 12824, holotype -P, isotypes -BK K); SOUTH-EASTERN: Prachin Buri.
CLIMATE: Unknown
ECOLOGY: Low-lying waste ground.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed globose, ca 8 by 5–14 cm, root-scars not distinct, developing annual offsets, these thin, long rhizomatous, to ca 20 cm by 5 mm. Leaf solitary; petiole 50–120 by 1–3.5 cm, smooth, background base dark greyish brown grading upwards to pale green, with scattered, narrowly linear or elliptic spots; leaf blade 30–90 cm diam., rachises winged throughout; leaflets ovate to elliptic, slightly elongate, 2–12 by 1.4–4 cm, apex long acute, adaxially mid green, abaxially paler.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence short pedunculate, in all respects identical to that of A. paeoniifolius but dimensions much smaller; peduncle to 4 by 1 cm, smooth, pale whitish yellowish; spathe to 15 by 26 cm, base within densely clothed with numerous, small, irregular to slightly papillose warts, spathe limb margin strongly undulate, apex acute, exterior base whitish to whitish greyish, interior maroon, dark maroon near the apex, then with a dirty greenish to purplish zone, limb exterior dull dark purple with scattered orbicular whitish spots and small blackish green spots, interior as exterior but darker and slightly glossy in the basal half; spadix to 11 cm long; pistillate flower zone cylindrical 3.5 by 3 cm; ovaries subglobose, 2 by 2.5 mm, base slightly attenuate, apex subtruncate, basal half whitish, apex purplish, unilocular, uniovulate; style slender, 5 by 1 mm, purple; stigma sublateral on the apex of the style, the stigmatic surface pointing towards the appendix, conical, 2 by 2 mm, apex obtuse, white, surface densely scabrate-penicillate; staminate flower zone cylindrical, base constricted, 2.5 by 2 cm; staminate flowers 3–5-androus; pale yellow; appendix 5 by 5–6 cm, dull brownish purple, apex subacute or broadly truncate. Fruit yellow, ripening to orange.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet refers to the species locality
NOTES:
Differs from Amorphophallus titanum by (1) much smaller overall size; (2) spathe not regularly cleft at the apex; (3) sessile, subglobose appendix; (4) much denser ovaries; (5) ovate (not globose) stigma.
The inflorescence of Amorphophallus bangkokensis is almost identical to that of Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, but generally smaller. The stigmas of Amorphophallus bangkokensis are directed upwards towards the appendix, whereas those in Amorphophallus paeoniifolius are directed horizontally, towards the spathe wall. In vegetative characters both species differ considerably, with Amorphophallus bangkokensis producing very long and thin rhizomatous offsets on the tuber and having a smooth, striped petiole.
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
