AMORPHOPHALLUS BREVIPETIOLATUS
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
Amorphophallus brevipetiolatus Alan Galloway, A. Ongsakul, & P. Schmidt sp. nov.
Type: from a plant cultivated by A. Galloway (orig. coll.: LAOS, Bolikhamxay Province, in moist and heavily shaded areas, A. Galloway), 19 April 2008, Galloway AGA-1570-03-T (holotype, QBG, spirit collection.).
Photo by Alan Galloway
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Laos
CLIMATE: N/A
ECOLOGY: Moist and heavily shaded areas
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber elongate, napiform, sometimes irregularly branched, 10–16 cm long, 4– 6 cm wide, dirty white. Leaf solitary; petiole 10–16 cm long, 0.75–1.25 cm in diam., smooth, green; lamina to 90 cm wide, the three rachises markedly inclined, barely winged, about as long as the petiole before again branching; leaflets several discrete on each rachis, elliptic, top acuminate, base broadly decurrent, 25–30 cm long, 10–12.7 cm wide, upper side glossy rich green, lower side paler.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary, long pedunculate; peduncle smooth, dark grayish green to reddish gray, 10–17 cm long, 0.5 cm in diam.; spathe erect, triangular, base convolute, top acuminate, 6–8 cm long, 2.5–3.5 cm in diam., outside grayish green with darker venation, inside pale green to cream, inside base with shallow warts. Spadix longer than spathe, sessile, 10.5–14 cm long; female zone cylindric, 0.6–1 cm long, 0.8 cm in diam., flowers congested; male zone cylindric, 4– 4.25 cm long, 0.8 cm in diam., flowers congested; appendix narrowly conical, slightly constricted at the base, 5.5–8.5 cm long, 0.8 cm in diam. near the base, acute, smooth or shallowly rugulose, off-white. Ovaries obconical, angulate, depressed, upper part strongly truncate, ca. 1 mm high, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., pale green, unilocular; style very short, ca. 0.2 mm long, 0.5 mm in diam.; stigma disciform, circular in crosssection, slightly 3-lobed, shallowly grooved between lobes, verrucate, greenish-yellow. Male flowers consisting of 4–5 (–9) stamens; stamens ca. 1.2 mm long, creamywhite; filaments very short, ca. 0.2 mm, indistinctly connate with neighboring stamens; anthers truncate, 0.5–1 mm high, 1 mm in diam.; pore apical, slit-like, fusing to form a common large slit per theca at male anthesis; connective broad, truncate, ca. 0.6 mm wide.
Alan Galloway described the scent of the inflorescence as “an obnoxious scent of something akin to a mixture of kerosene and musk with a sprinkling of manure and a dash of carrion.”
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet refers to the very short petiole
NOTES:
Amorphophallus brevipetiolatus shares the glossy sheen of the upper leaflets with Amorphophallus glossophyllus Hett. (C. and N. Vietnam). The leaves can persist beyond the typical growing season, much like the leaves of Amorphophallus verticillatus Hett. (N. Vietnam) and Amorphophallus coaetaneus Liu & Wei (S. China). The more unique characteristic of this species being the short petiole in relation to the width of the lamina.
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
