AMORPHOPHALLUS SARABURENSIS
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus saraburensis Gagnep., published in Notulae Systematicae (Paris) 9: 122 (1941).
Amorphophallus saraburensis Gagnep. n. sp., Notul. Syst. (Paris) 9: 122 (1941). Siam: Mênam-sak, Saraburi, n° 7.037 (Kerr).
DISTRIBUTION: C. Thailand: Thailand.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Thailand: Saraburi, on the Mênam Sak, where Kerr gathered the type.².
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Translated from protologue: Tuber unknown. Leaves trisect, the divisions 25 cm long, not forked at the apex or only rarely so, bipinnatisect, with alternate branchlets about 9 cm long which are pinnatisect and carry 3-7 segments; segments unequal, narrowly decurrent at the base over 3 mm, 1-7 cm long and 5-25 mm wide, lanceolate, attenuate at the base and acuminate at the apex; the marginal vein set 2-3 mm back from the margin. Petiole 65 cm long, green, striped and spotted with purple.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Translated from protologue: The inflorescence is strongly scented in the evening, the odour offensive. Spathe 20 cm long, ear-shaped, very sharply acuminate, somewhat tailed, green and pale when dried, narrow, 2 cm wide; peduncle 70 cm long, coloured as the petiole. Spadix 17-23 cm long, exserted or long-spreading; the female part 3 cm long and 1 cm thick, terete; the male part 5 cm long and 6 mm wide, cylindroid; between them a sterile portion 10 mm long and 5 mm thick; appendix awl-shaped, 12 cm long, at length spreading and drooping over. Anthers of the stamens oblong with an oblong, subtruncate apex 1.5 mm wide, opening by opposite, parallel, ovate pores. Ovaries globose, subtruncate at the apex; style equalling the ovary or shorter, 1 mm long; stigma capitate, two-lobed, broader than the style.²
ETYMOLOGY:
From Saraburi, the province in central Thailand where Kerr gathered the type, with the Latin-ensis, “from.” Gagnepain printed the epithet saraburensis, and that is the accepted spelling; it is sometimes met with as “saraburiensis.”²
NOTES:
1. The tuber has never been described.²
2. The scent is timed as well as described: the inflorescence smells in the evening, and the odour is called offensive.²
3. Gagnepain ran the plant through Engler's key, which led him to Amorphophallus variabilis, and then set out five ways it differs - leaf divisions not forked, or forked only at the tip; more numerous, more unequal and more decurrent segments; a narrower appendix that finally droops; longer male and female zones; and ovaries whose style is only as long as the ovary itself.²
4. There is a sterile band 10 mm long between the female and male zones.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus saraburensis Gagnep.
2. Notulae Systematicae (Paris) 9: 122 (1941) — protologue.