AMORPHOPHALLUS CICATRICIFER
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
Ab Amorphophallus bulbifero (Roxb.) Blume in pistillis minoribus, zona mascula obconica, coloris ordinatione in spatha diversa differt.
Typus: den Hoed, Kwae Noi River Basin Exp. nr. 663 (L holo; iso K), Thailand, near Neeckey, near Wangka, in dense moist forest, alt. 150 m, 21-V-1946.
Photo by Mary Sizemore
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: N/A
ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: N/A
OTHER: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Thailand
CLIMATE: N/A
ECOLOGY: Dense, moist forest, alt 150m
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed-globose, 4-6 cm in diam., c. 3 cm high. Leaf unknown. Inflorescence solitary, long peduncled; cataphylls up to 30 cm long, 'brownish purple'
INFLORESCENCE:
Peduncle 22-43 cm long, 0.8 cm in diam. (base), smooth, 'purple, paling up to the lower part'; spathe elliptic, acute, base convolute, c. 20 cm long, c. 8 cm in diam., 'pale flesh coloured with purple veins', base within slightly rugulose and probably darker coloured than other parts of the spathe, no distinct warts. Spadix shorter than spathe, sessile, 14-16 cm long; female zone slightly obconic, 1-1.5 cm long, 0.70.9(-1.7?) cm in diam., 'yellow and purple', flowers slightly distant, a few of the uppermost absent, leaving only a small scar; male zone obconic, distinctly narrowed to the base, 3-3.5 cm long, diameter 0.5-0.7 mm at base, 1.2-1.5 mm at the top, flowers congested, to the base less so, basal flowers reduced to one stamen or entirely absent, leaving a scar; sterile zone between male and female zone very short, consisting of several scars of absent male and/or female flowers, 2-3 mm long; appendix massive, fusiform-conic, smooth, subacute, base with some flattened staminodes, 8-10 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm in diam., 'cream coloured'. Ovaries depressed, 2-3 mm in diam., c. 1.5 mm high, stipitate, unilocular, stipe 1 mm long, 0.5 mm in diam., sunken into the spadix-axis; style 1 mm long, 0.5 mm in diam.; stigma disciform, circular in cross section, entire or with a shallow central depression, sometimes surrounded by three small lobes, margins slightly irregularly deflexed, surface verruculate, 1.5-2 mm in diam., 0.3-0.4 mm high. Maleflowers consisting of 1-4 stamens; stamens c. 1 mm long; filaments 0.1-0.2 mm long; anthers truncate, 1-1.4 mm in diam., 0.8-1 mm long, 'light yellow', pores apical, oval at anthesis, connective slightly enlarged, with a transverse groove connecting the pores. Pollen irregularly striate.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet refers to the scars of absent flowers between male and female zone.
NOTES: Amorphophallus cicatricifer is morphologically near to Amorphophallus bulbifer (Roxb.) Blume, from which it differs in the smaller pistils, the obconic male zone, a sterile zone between male and female zones, a different colour pattern of the spathe and striate pollen (vs. psilate).
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
REFERENCES:
Additional photos by Marina Rix, Attila Makay and Theerasak M Uttarapong
