AMORPHOPHALLUS BUFO

Species

Jan 4

Written By BostonJungle

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:

Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums V.4 (1911) P.89

SYNONYMS:

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus manta Hett. & Ittenbach in Blumea 39: 263 (1994)

ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A

DISTRIBUTION: Malaysia & Indonesia | Peninsular Malaysia & Sumatra | West Malaysia, Pahang, Johore, Selangor, Harau Valley

CLIMATE: N/A

ECOLOGY: Found in montane forests at ca. 1200 m

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuber hemispheric, about 8 inches across. Leaf about 4 feet tall, petiole fairly stout, mottled grey and green, lamina about 18 inches across, much divided lobes, ovate to lanceolate, cuspidate, decurrent, nerves numerous and fine.

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence solitary, long peduncled; peduncle c. 27 cm long, c. 1.2 cm in diam., dark reddish brown with numerous, small, blackish green, elongate, short spots and scattered larger, elliptic, dirty whitish spots; spathe ovate, c. 14 cm long, c. 11 cm in diam., broadly acute, base strongly convolute, limb basally spreading, then suddenly bent forward and then curved back again, base outside dirty brownish green with numerous, small, punctiform, blackish green spots and a few, slightly larger, dirty white spots, inside dark purple, upwards with a creamy zone, limb outside at the centre as base but margins and top brownish purple with rounded, white spots, inside dark maroon with rounded, white spots, base within verrucate, warts conical. Spadix slightly longer than spathe, 16 cm long, sessile; female zone cylindric, c. 2.8 cm long, 1.5 cm in diam., flowers distant; male zone obconic, 3.5 cm long, diam. in upper part c. 2 cm, top constricted, flowers slightly distant, some of the upper flowers sterile; appendix shortly stipitate, conic, subacute, upper part slightly dorso-ventrally compressed, c. 10 cm long, c. 3 cm in diameter at the base, glossy dark purple, rugulose and with many, irregular, shallow depressions, stipe 4 mm long, yellowish white. Ovaries globose or depressed globose, 2 mm in diam., c. 1.7 mm high, (l-)2-3-locular, lower half dirty white, upper half purple; style very short to near absent, 0.1-0.3 mm long, c. 1 mm in diam.; stigma sessile, hemispheric, 1-1.4 mm in diam., c. 1 mm high, with 2 or 3 very shallow lobes, brownish grey. Maleflowers consisting of 3-5 stamens; stamens c. 2 mm long; filaments c. 1 mm long, connate, forming a cushion; anthers 1-1.7 mm in diam., c. 1 mm long, hemispheric, yellow, dark purple around the pores, pores apical, elongate. Pollen coarsely striate.

VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A

ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet is believed to refer to the Amphibian genus Bufo (Latin for toad), which was historically often used in zoology or botany to denote something that is blotched, or warty, likely alluding to the lichenation (lichen-like mimicry) seen in the genus Amorphophallus or to the slimy appearance of the inflorescence and spathe

NOTES: N/A

CULTIVARS: N/A

HYBRIDS: N/A