AMORPHOPHALLUS PLICATUS

PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus plicatus Bok & H.J.Lam, published in Blumea 2: 33 (1936). The protologue is reproduced below.

DISTRIBUTION: Sulawesi: Sulawesi.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Indonesia: North Sulawesi - Bolaang Mongondow, at Modajag, at 750 m. The type was gathered by W. Kaudern in October 1917 and is held at Stockholm.².

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Translated from protologue: We have not seen the tuber or the leaf; we have seen only a single glabrous spadix. Cataphylls 3, oblong-lanceolate, 33, 19 and 17 cm long and 6.7, 2.8 and 4.5 cm wide, blunt at the apex, two of them apparently attached at the base and one - the shortest - at the apex of the peduncle.²

INFLORESCENCE:

Translated from protologue: Peduncle 4.5 cm long and, in the living state, 2.1 cm thick (1.9 cm when dried). Spathe 25 cm long, broadly campanulate, convolute at the base, the margin laciniate and strongly plicate towards the edge, purple within towards the base (?) and minutely papillose, paler above, the lobes unequal and up to 9 cm long. Spadix twice as long as the spathe, 45 cm long; female inflorescence cylindrical, about 5.5 cm long and 2.5-2.8 cm thick; male inflorescence closely contiguous with it, slightly constricted at the base, about 5 cm long and 2-2.5 cm thick; appendix 36 cm long, narrowly cylindrical, gradually tapering; male flowers more congested than the female. Ovary globose, sessile, 3-locular, narrowed at the apex into the style; style about as long as the ovary or a little longer; stigma not or obscurely 2-lobed. Stamen solitary, about 1 mm long and 2 mm wide; anthers adnate, opening by 2 pores at the apex.²

ECOLOGY:

Found in forest; altitude: 750 m²

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin plicatus, “folded” or “pleated”: the spathe is strongly plicate towards its margin, which is itself cut into unequal lobes up to 9 cm long. That pleated, torn-edged spathe is the character the authors use to separate it from its relatives.²

NOTES:

1. The species was described from a single spadix. Neither the tuber nor the leaf was available, and the authors say so plainly at the head of the description.²

2. It is related to Amorphophallus konjac of Indochina - cited by the authors under its synonym Amorphophallus rivieri - and to Amorphophallus merrillii of the Philippines, but is distinguished from both by the short peduncle and the deeply laciniate, plicate spathe.²

3. Because two of the three cataphylls had become detached, the authors note that the length of the peduncle is not quite certain; it is somewhat dilated at the base, which suggests it was attached to the tuber. The third and smallest cataphyll sits immediately below the spathe.²

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus plicatus Bok & H.J.Lam

2. Blumea 2: 33 (1936) — protologue.

Additional photos by Plantvanjava, Pio Swiat and Rafiq Rafiq