AMORPHOPHALLUS HAEMATOSPADIX
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus haematospadix Hook.f., published in The Flora of British India 6: 517 (1893). The protologue is reproduced below.
SYNONYMS:
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus siamensis Gagnep. in Notul. Syst. (Paris) 9: 122 (1941)
DISTRIBUTION: Pen. Thailand to Pen. Malaysia (Pulau Langkawi): Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra (?).
Doubtfully present in Sumatra (per POWO).
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed-globose or subglobose, up to ca. 12 cm in diam., up to ca. 9 cm high, pale brown, producing few annual offsets, these globose, fusiform or obovate, up to ca. 5 cm long and ca. 2 cm in diam. Leaf solitary; petiole uniformly green or olive-green, smooth, 50–85 cm long, 1–3 cm in diam. (base); lamina 60–80 cm in diam.; leaflets lanceolate, 7–25 cm long, 2–6 cm in diam., acuminate, leathery, upper surface dark green, moderately glossy, venation very dense, secondary veins very closely spaced.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence long-peduncled; peduncle as petiole, 17–40 cm long, ca. 0.8 cm in diam.; spathe elongate-triangular, apiculate, 8–21 cm long, 4–7 cm in diam., margins of limb strongly reflexed, limb on both sides creamy white, base outside creamy white, to the base suffused with pale purplish green, inside dark purple, base within with thickened, transverse veins, in between with or without small, punctiform warts. Spadix sessile, longer than spathe, occasionally shorter, 9–19 cm long.
ECOLOGY:
Found on limestone
ETYMOLOGY:
From Greek haima, haimatos, “blood,” and spadix, the fleshy flowering axis of an aroid, literally “blood-red spadix.” The epithet refers to the striking red, clavate appendix, one of the species’ most distinctive floral characters and a feature that readily separates Amorphophallus haematospadix from related species.
NOTES:
1. Amorphophallus haematospadix cannot easily be mistaken for any other species. The presence of the red, clavate appendix and the transverse ridges on the inside of the base are unique in the genus. The leaf is very elegant because of the long, narrow leaflets with their dense, reticulate venation and leathery structure
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus haematospadix Hook.f.
2. The Flora of British India 6: 517 (1893) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus haematospadix, alangallowaybotanicals.com.
4. Aroideana 19 (1996):P7 - 131
Additional video by Michael Lo