AMORPHOPHALLUS BREVISPATHUS

Species

Jan 4

Written By BostonJungle

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

Notulae Systematicae V.9 (1941) P.118

SYNONYMS:

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Thomsonia larsenii S.Y.Hu in Dansk Bot. Ark. 23: 440 (1968)

ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A

OTHER: Buk i rok khao (บุกอีรอกเขา) - mountain gibbon konjac (buk is a common Thai name for Amorphophallus) (Saraburi)

DISTRIBUTION: Thailand | Saraburi | Muak Lek

CLIMATE: N/A

ECOLOGY: Moist and heavily shaded areas, in erosion holes in limestone boulders, ca. 450m altitude

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuber elongate, 4–10 by 2–4 cm, branching freely, developing few or numerous, massive, rhizomatous offsets, 2–10 by 1–2 cm; Leaf solitary; petiole smooth, 17–50 cm by 5–10 mm, uniformly pale green; leaf blade moderately dissected, 30–76 cm diam., rachises winged distally from the main branching-points; leaflets large, oblanceolate-elliptic, 9–35 by 3.5–12 cm, apex abruptly shortly acuminate.

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence solitary, long pedunculate; cataphylls to 25 cm long; peduncle appearance as petiole, 12–36 cm by 5–10 mm; spathe erect, broadly triangular, base convolute, not separated from the limb, apex acute, 5–8 by 5–10 cm, exterior whitish green or off-white, interior as exterior but base slightly greener, base within densely clothed with irregular, shortly elongate or ridge-like, fleshy warts; spadix longer than spathe, sessile, 7.5–18 cm long; pistillate flower zone cylindrical, 1–1.5 by 1 cm, flowers congested; ovaries slightly depressed, 2–3 by 1.5–2 mm, slightly angular in cross-section; style short, ca 1.2 by 1 mm, pale green; stigma large, disciform or slightly hemispherical, 1 by 1.5–2 mm, entire or with a very shallow central depression, surface echinulate, white; staminate flower zone slightly obconical or cylindrical, 2–3 by 1–5 cm, flowers congested; staminate flowers 4–6-androus; stamens connate, white, connective consisting of conspicuously large cells, pores apical, near the centre, elongate, the connective rupturing at anthesis to form a large, cross-shaped aperture together with the pores, surrounded by four ‘valves’; appendix elongate conical, acute, 5–14 cm by 1–1.6 cm, smooth, whitish. Fruit not seen.

VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A

ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet refers to the very short spathe

NOTES: Amorphophallus brevispathus resembles Amorphophallus glossophyllus Hett. (N Vietnam). The latter has a leaf with distinct naked rachis parts and less strongly oblong leaflets. Amorphophallus brevispathus also approximates Amorphophallus interruptus, which differs mainly by the verticillate arrangement of the staminate flowers. All three species share the unique merging of the pores at staminate anthesis, rupturing the connective and the apex of the anther to form a cross-shaped hole.

CULTIVARS: N/A

HYBRIDS: N/A