AMORPHOPHALLUS MAXIMUS

PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus maximus (Engl.) N.E.Br., published in Flora of Tropical Africa 8: 157 (1901). The protologue is reproduced below.

SYNONYMS:

HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Corynophallus maximus (Engl.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. Pl. 2: 741 (1891) Hydrosme maxima Engl. in A.L.P.P.de Candolle & A.C.P.de Candolle, Monogr. Phan. 2: 323 (1879)

ACCEPTED INFRASPECIFICS: Amorphophallus maximus subsp. fischeri (Engl.) Ittenb. ex Govaerts Amorphophallus maximus subsp. maximus

DISTRIBUTION: Somalia to Zimbabwe: Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuber depressed-globose or disciform, to 25 cm in diam., producing globose offsets. Leaf solitary; petiole to 100 cm long, greyish green with reddish purple flushes, or mottled, with a distinct waxy layer; lamina to 120 cm in diam.; leaflets lanceolate to obovate, to 19 cm long.⁴

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence developing just prior to the leaf, long-peduncled; peduncle to 70 cm long, as petiole; spathe to 30 cm long, base and limb separated by a distinct constriction, outside base greyish purple to greyish brown, inside purple and warty, outside limb dirty purplish and greyish, inside glossy purple, margins strongly sinuous and twisted. Spadix longer than spathe, to ca. 70 cm long, emitting the smell of decaying meat; the appendix produces numerous droplets on the first day of flowering.⁴

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin maximus, “greatest” or “largest,” referring to the impressive size of this African species. Mature plants develop large leaves and an inflorescence with a spadix reaching roughly 70 cm long. The name emphasizes overall stature rather than a single diagnostic structure.

NOTES:

1. A rather elegant species, also in leaf — the lamina has a pretty lacy appearance. It mostly resembles Amorphophallus mullendersii, but the latter has a deeply lobed spathe limb and the spathe base is ridged inside.⁴

2. Two names are regarded as synonyms: Amorphophallus fischeri and Amorphophallus schliebenii.⁴ N.E. Brown transferred Engler's species to Amorphophallus in the Flora of Tropical Africa in 1901.²

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus maximus (Engl.) N.E.Br.

2. Flora of Tropical Africa 8: 157 (1901) — protologue.

3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus maximus, alangallowaybotanicals.com.

4. Aroideana 19 (1996):P7 - 131

5. iNaturalist: Amorphophallus maximus

6. Revision der afrikanischen Arten der Gattung Amorphophallus (Araceae). Englera 25: 1-263 (2003)

7. Das Pflanzenreich IV.23c (Araceae-Lasioideae), Fig. 33: 92 (1911)