AMORPHOPHALLUS ECHINATUS
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus echinatus Bogner & Mayo, published in Aroideana 8: 19 (1985).
Amorphophallus echinatus Bogner et Mayo, sp. nov., a Amorphophallus napalensi (Wallich) Bogner et Mayo prominentiis basin appendicis sterilis versus aculeatis, apicern versus latioribus ac minus prominentibus, a Amorphophallus kerrii N.E. Brown spatha erecta, spadici subaequilonga, intra basin versus rugosa, stigmate latiore trilobo recedit. Typus: Thailand, G. den Hoed 662 (l, holotypus).
SYNONYMS:
OTHER NAMES: Thai: Buk (บุก).
DISTRIBUTION: SW. Thailand: Thailand.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Thailand, Kanchanaburi, Khwae Noi Basin, Sangkhla Buri area.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed-globose, 14 cm in diam. and about 6 cm thick, brown ("rhaphideous"). Leaf unknown.
INFLORESCENCE:
Peduncle about 30 cm ("32 cm") long and 1.5 cm in diam., "dark bluish-green with elongated white spots longitudinally placed". Cataphylls several, 2–7 cm long, membranaceous, brown. Spathe about 17 cm long, 6–7 cm in diam., more-or-less as long as spadix, within rugose at the base, "pale flesh-coloured with purple veins, outside pale purplish-grey with green spots in the lower part"; the whole spathe seems to be covered with pale spots. Spadix 15 cm long but apex broken (probably about 16–17 cm long in total), 2–3 cm in diam.; female part about 4.5 cm long, 2 cm in diam.; male part about 5 cm long, male flowers densely congested; appendix 5 cm long or more, aculeate, "pale purple", projections of appendix sharply pointed, 1.5–2 mm long, with swollen bases, more prominent and narrower in diam. in lower part of appendix. Pistils 2.5–3 mm long, "greyish-purple"; ovary subglobose, about 1.5 mm in diam., trilocular with a single ovule per locule; style about 1 mm long, 0.7–0.8 mm in diam.; stigma usually trilobed, about 1.5 mm in diam. Stamens "purplish-yellow", thecae about 1 mm broad, opening apically by oblique slits.
ECOLOGY:
Found at 150m in dense moist forest,
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin echinatus, “spiny” or “prickly,” referring to the sharply pointed projections covering the spadix appendix.
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus echinatus Bogner & Mayo
2. Aroideana 8: 19 (1985) — protologue.