AMORPHOPHALLUS BECCARII
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus cobra Alderw. in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 3, 4: 165 (1922)
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Indonesia | Sumatra
CLIMATE: N/A
ECOLOGY: N/A
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Peduncle not described in detail.
INFLORESCENCE:
Spatha oblong and obtuse, convolute at the base, enclosing the inflorescence; shorter but much thicker than the spadix, which is sessile. Spadix is slightly longer than its own width (3× as long), tapering slightly toward the apex. The female zone is subequal in length to the male zone. Appendix thick, gradually narrowing toward the apex. Ovaries depressed-globose and unilocular.
Style nearly absent; Stigma subglobose, seated atop the ovary, barely exceeding one-third of the ovary's diameter. Stamens are sessile and white, with very short connective lobes forming the anther locules, and the apex bears brownish longitudinal vittae (stripes or grooves).
The spathe coloration for this species is heterogenous, ranging from light greenish white to deep speckled red.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet beccarii refers to Odoardo Beccari, an Italian naturalist who discovered the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum), the plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, in Sumatra in 1878. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation Becc.
NOTES: N/A
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
REFERENCES:
Botanische Jahrbücher für Systematik, Pflanzengeschichte und Pflanzengeographie V.1 (1881) P.182
Photos by Pascal Bruggeman, Bruno Antony, and Jeremy Holden
