AMORPHOPHALLUS SAURURUS
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus saururus Hett., published in Blumea 46: 268 (2001).
Amorphophallus saururus Hett., spec. nov. Amorphophallo pygmaeo similis, folio infra nunquam purpureo, appendice triplo vel plus longiore sigmoideo differt. - Typus: Hetterscheid H.AM.026-T (holo L, spirit coll.), Thailand, Loei prov., “along the Mekong river” (coll. from a cultivated plant in the Leiden Botanical Garden; orig. coll. C.M. Fitch).
DISTRIBUTION: NE. Thailand: Thailand.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Thailand: Loei Province, along the Mekong River.².
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber shortly elongate, often irregularly branched when mature, dark brown, to about 10 cm long and 2.5 cm across. Petiole smooth, 13-50 cm long, 0.5-1.5 cm across, uniformly green, yellowish, or reddish brown. Lamina moderately or highly dissected, 16-90 cm across; leaflets obovate to broadly elliptic, acute-acuminate, the base decurrent, 2-15 cm long and 1-6 cm across, the upper surface very dark green to blackish green with a bright pink margin and a pale yellowish main vein, the lower surface greyish green with dark green venation.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary and long-peduncled; peduncle as the petiole, 3-40 cm long and 0.4-1.2 cm across. Spathe erect, rather concave, 4-10.5 cm long and 2-7 cm across, the base convolute, the limb constricted at the base with involute margins and a fornicate, acute top; outside the base is pale green with thin brown veins and the limb off-white with paler veins towards the top and a faint pinkish hue at the margin, the inside similar, the base within sparingly or densely clothed with fleshy warts, inconspicuous or shortly elongate, with thickened and irregularly scabrate apical parts. Spadix sessile, longer to much longer than the spathe, 8-20 cm long; female zone cylindric, short, 0.3-1 cm long and 0.6-1.1 cm across, the flowers congested or distant; male zone elongate conic, 2-7 cm long and 0.4-1.4 cm across, the flowers congested; appendix myosuroid, 4-12 cm long and 0.3-1 cm across, erect, sigmoid, acute, slightly narrowed to the base, with irregular shallow depressions, developing a powerful gaseous stench at female anthesis. Ovaries depressed, rhombic or rounded in cross section, 3 mm across and 2 mm high, pale greyish brown, 2-locular; style pale greyish brown with a few pinkish longitudinal stripes, 3-4 mm long and about 0.8 mm across, slightly obconic, mostly parallel to the axis of the spadix but with the top curved outward towards the spathe; stigma depressed, 0.7-1.5 mm across and 0.5 mm high, with a shallow radiating central depression, shallowly 5- or 6-lobed, occasionally nearly entire, dirty yellowish white, the surface minutely scabrate. Male flowers of 2-4 stamens, the lowermost flowers often pyramidal; stamens 0.8-1 mm long, the lowermost sometimes to 2 mm; filaments nearly absent or to 1 mm long, connate, in the lower flowers very obliquely elongate with the inward-facing half much longer than the outward-facing. Anthers flattened, irregular in cross section, in the lowermost flowers with the inward-facing wall enlarged, 1.5-2 mm across and 0.8-1 mm long, sometimes with a groove containing the pores, white or yellowish, pale brownish around the pores and in the groove; pores elongate. Pollen striate, ellipsoidal, 56 µm long. Berries lageniform, white.²
PROPAGATION:
Our results with this species have been quite variable. We rooted it with 100% success on new growth in early November, but also failed to achieve any rooting on other attempts in October and November. Early August gave the next best results, with the percentages dropping rapidly after this time. We feel that the November rooting success was on newly emerging fall shoots.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the Greek sauros, “lizard,” and oura, “tail”: the appendix is long, slender and sigmoid, curved like the tail of a lizard. It is the character that separates the species from Amorphophallus pygmaeus, in which the appendix is a third the length.²
NOTES:
1. Amorphophallus saururus resembles Amorphophallus pygmaeus in most respects but never has a purple lower leaf surface, and its style is twice as long.²
2. The species was introduced into cultivation long before it was described, under the wrong name. Plants circulating as Amorphophallus parvulus were this species.²
3. The lowest male flowers are pyramidal and their stamens partly fused - a condition carried much further in Amorphophallus synandrifer, where fused male flowers occupy the whole male zone.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus saururus Hett.
2. Blumea 46: 268 (2001) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus saururus, alangallowaybotanicals.com.
4. Propagation of Amorphophallus by Leaf Petiole Cuttings — Juniper Level Botanic Garden