AMORPHOPHALLUS BAUMANNII
Photo by Ralph Mangelsdorf
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Hydrosme baumannii Engl. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 26: 420 (1899)
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus flavovirens N.E.Br. in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. 8: 153 (1901)
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Benin, Burkina, Central African Republic, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo
CLIMATE: N/A
ECOLOGY: N/A
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed. Leaf solitary; petiole green; ultimate segments of the (undeveloped) blade 3¼–4 in. long, 5 lin. broad, lanceolate, long-acuminate.
INFLORESCENCE:
Peduncle about 1 ft. long, included for more than ⅓ of its length in the purplish cataphyllary leaves. Spathe about 2½ in. long, and rather more than 1½ in. broad, ovate, obtuse, convolute, pale green. Spadix about 3 times as long as the spathe; female part about 5 lin. long, cylindric; male part 7 lin. long, obconic, about ¼ in. thick at the base, and ½ in. thick in the upper part; appendix about 5 in. long, tapering upwards, smooth. Ovary ovoid; stigma sessile, broadly orbicular. — Hydrosme Baumannii, Engl. Jahrb. xxvi. 420.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY:
The species epithet baumannii honors Dr. Oscar Baumann (25 June 1864 – 12 October 1899) an Austrian explorer, cartographer, and ethnographer of the late 19th century
Born in Vienna, Baumann studied natural history and geography before joining an Austrian expedition to the Congo Basin under Oskar Lenz in 1885. After recovering from illness, he conducted ethnographic research on Fernando Po in 1886
He is perhaps best known for his pioneering exploration of the interior of German East Africa, especially the Usambara Mountains region of present-day Tanzania, where he collaborated with Hans Meyer on early mapping and geographical reconnaissance during 1888–89, including an attempt to scale Mount Kilimanjaro. Although he died prematurely in Vienna in 1899, his contributions to African geographical knowledge and ethnography were commemorated in the naming of Amorphophallus baumannii.
NOTES: N/A
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
