AMORPHOPHALLUS HOHENACKERI
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus hohenackeri (Schott) Engl. & Gehrm., published in Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 103 (1911). The protologue is reproduced below.
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Corynophallus hohenackeri (Schott) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 741 (1891) Hydrosme hohenackeri (Schott) Engl. in H.G.A.Engler & K.A.E.Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam., Nachtr. 1: 59 (1897) Rhaphiophallus hohenackeri Schott in Gen. Aroid.: t. 27 (1858)
DISTRIBUTION: SW. India: India.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: South India: Karnataka - Dakshina Kannada District, near Mangaluru; Uttara Kannada District.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed-globose, to ca. 10 cm in diam., ca. 6 cm high, seasonally producing numerous offsets, these thin, long rhizomatous, to 35 cm long and ca. 0.8 cm in diam. Leaf solitary; petiole to ca. 70 cm long, ca. 2 cm in diam., smooth, covered with a greyish wah)' layer, background color pale grey, to the base mottled with blackish green spots, usually covered with greyish white dots, in leaves of subadult plants the blackish green spots are more distinctly oval; lamina to ca. 90 cm in diam.; leaflets elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 3- 23 cm long, 2-8 cm in diam., acuminate.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary, long-peduncled; peduncle 25- 56 cm long, 0.8-1.3 cm in diam., as petiole; spathe erect, elongate-triangular, funnel-shaped, 8.5- 21 cm long, 3-1 2 cm in diam., basal 0.5-1 cm connate, truncate, base and limb not differentiated, basal part convolute or open, top acute, outside dirty white with faint, pale greenish flushes, scattered dense groups of small, blackish green dots, the base and margin (near the top) with a faint purplish flush, margins green, veins green to dark green, inside pale green, the up per two-thirds suffused with reddish brown and some blackish green small spots, base within smooth. Spadix stipitate (stipe 0.5-1 cm), slightly shorter to longer than spathe, 8- 23 cm long; between male and female zones, a short zone with large, flattened, egglike sterile male flowers (staminodes).
ECOLOGY:
Found among bushes in open and shady places, ca. 50m alt.
ETYMOLOGY:
Named in honor of R. F. Hohenacker, the nineteenth-century botanist and plant collector whose Indian material formed the basis for the name. The Latinized epithet hohenackeri means “of Hohenacker.” The species is native to southern India and belongs to a distinctive Indian group in which sterile male flowers function as food bodies for pollinating beetles.
NOTES:
1. Amorphophallus hohenackeri is close to Amorphophallus bonaccordensis, the latter differing by the spadix being distinctly shorter than the spathe and a barren zone below the staminodes. In a recent paper by Sivadasan & Sabu (Aroideana 12(1-4):32- 37) the function of the staminodes as food bodies for the pollinators has been effectively shown. All related species in this exclusively Indian group (section Amorphophallus) show this adaptation culminating in the "giant" food bodies of Amorphophallus margaritifer (see Hett. & de Sarker, this volume).
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus hohenackeri (Schott) Engl. & Gehrm.
2. Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 103 (1911) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus hohenackeri, alangallowaybotanicals.com.