AMORPHOPHALLUS BOLIKHAMXAYENSIS

Species

Sep 27

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

Amorphophallus bolikhamxayensis A. Galloway, A. Ongsakul, & P. Schmidt sp. nov.

Type: from a plant cultivated by A. Galloway (orig. coll.: LAOS, Bolikhamxay Province), 2 February 2010, Galloway AGA-2020-01-T (holotype, QBG, spirit collection.).

Aroideana 35 (2012) P.53

SYNONYMS:

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A

ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A

DISTRIBUTION: Laos | Bolikhamxay Province

CLIMATE: N/A

ECOLOGY: In shaded areas among limestone boulders

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuber subglobose to depressed-globose, 20 cm in diam., 12 cm high, dark olive- brown to brown, densely covered with thick, short protrusions, sometimes associated with root-scars, producing fusiform offsets seasonally. Leaf solitary; petiole 80–100 cm long, 3.5–5 cm in diam., smooth, medium to dark olive-green or dark olive-brown or rust-brown with several rhombic or elliptic-elongate, pale whitish-greenish spots; lamina highly dissected, up to 180 cm wide, rachises broadly winged except the basal branching points; leaflets elliptic, tip acuminate, base broadly decurrent, 10–40 cm long, 5–12 cm in diam., upper side green, lower side paler.

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence solitary, long- pedunculate; peduncle as petiole but considerably thinner, 50–60 cm long, ca. 1 cm in diam.; spathe erect, concave, arching over the spadix, broadly ovate, obtuse or acute, 12– 15 cm long, 5–7.5 cm in diam., base shortly convolute, inside base smooth, outside pale brown, heavily splotched with irregularshaped spots creamy white, the margin lined pinkish brown, inside creamy white with pale green splotches, limb outside pale brown, lightly splotched with lichen-shaped spots creamy white, margin lined pinkish brown, inside creamy white with pale green splotches. Spadix much shorter than spathe, 8.5–11.5 cm long, stipitate, stipe 0.5–1 cm long, color and pattern as peduncle at base, white at top; female zone cylindric, slightly conic or obconic, 1–2 cm long, 1–1.5 cm in diam., flowers congested; male zone conic or fusiformcylindric, rarely obconic, sometimes (partly) laterally compressed, 2–3 cm long, 2– 2.5 cm in diam., flowers congested; appendix ovate, conic or triangular-ovate, rarely subcylindric, inflated, or strongly laterally compressed, obtuse, rarely acute, creamy white, base strongly truncated, usually with a few broadly conic staminodes, surface smooth, often with a few longitudinal shallow or deep, broad folds, or irregularly folded throughout, 5–6.5 cm long, 3–4 cm in diam. Ovaries depressed, upper part truncate, ca. 2 mm high, 2– 2.5 mm in diam., pale brown, bilocular; style distinct, ca. 0.6 mm long, ca. 0.4 mm in diam., pale yellow; stigma subglobose to slightly depressed, shallowly bilobed, ca. 0.5 mm in diam., yellow. Male flowers consisting of (2–) 4 (–5) stamens; stamens ca. 3–4 mm long; filament 1–2 mm long, connate into a thick column, ca. 2 mm in diam.; anthers ca. 1.5mm long, ca. 1.2mm in diam., pale purple with an apical dark purple band; pores apical, fusing to form a common large pore per theca at male anthesis; connectives truncate to slightly sunken.

VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A

ETYMOLOGY: the species epithet refers to the Bolikhamxay province in Laos, where this species was found.

NOTES:

Amorphophallus bolikhamxayensis is obviously close to Amorphophallus yunnanensis Engl. (N. Thailand, Laos, N. Vietnam, China [Yunnan]) with which it shares the typical color pattern of the petiole, the shape of the spathe and the appendix shape, but being larger in all aspects. The tuber characteristic of being densely covered with thick short protrusions is shared with Amorphophallus tuberculatus Hett. & V.D. Nguyen (N. Vietnam) and Amorphophallus ferruginosus A. Galloway.
Alan Galloway and Jeremiah Baer indicated in an online interaction that this species produces few offsets, and generally only when mature
Alan Galloway was able to grow this species as a hardy, in-ground plant in USDA Zone 7b
Jeremiah Baer reported that the inflorescence has a strong floral smell mixed with a chemical smell.
In 2017, Alan Galloway reported this species was notorious for enacting false seed sets, giving the illusion it was self-pollinating: