AMORPHOPHALLUS BUFO
Photo by Alan Galloway
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus manta Hett. & Ittenbach in Blumea 39: 263 (1994)
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Thailand & Indonesia | Malaya & Sumatra
CLIMATE: N/A
ECOLOGY: N/A
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:
Peduncle 3 feet tall, 1½ inch through at the base, mottled and blotched, greenish grey with six fuscous-purple spots darker purple in the base of the tube. Spathe tube 3 inches long, and as wide at the mouth, limb very broad, 6 inches long, 4 inches across, oblong ovate in front, curiously blotched with circular greenish blotches with a brownish purple back ground, back paler olivaceous with pale greenish spots. Spadix 6 inches long, appendage a blunt cone cylindric, 3 inches long and 1 inch through, dull purple. Male portion yellowish cylindric, 1 inch long, anther cells two, parallel; flowers oblong crowded. Female portion 1 inch long, pistils very shortly stalked or rather narrowed at the base, style cylindric distinct, stigma discoid, very crowded.
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
REFERENCES:
Journal of the Federated Malay States Museums V.4 (1911) P.89
Additional photos by Suan Yoong, ChinHock Ooi and Folia SG
