AMORPHOPHALLUS VENUSTUS
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus venustus Hett., A.Hay & Mood, published in Blumea 46: 277 (2001).
16. Amorphophallus venustus Hett., A. Hay & J. Mood, spec. nov. - Fig. 4d Amorphophallo manta et Amorphophallus bufo persimilis, foliolis supra costa argentea, appendice multo angustiore verrucis rhombeis tecta differt. - Typus: Herscovitch s.n. (holo NSW, spirit coll.), Malaysia, Sabah, Maliau basin, Gunung Rara Forest Reserve, 2.5 km above main Maliau Falls, in mixed dipterocarp forest over sandstone, c. 530 m alt. (coll. from a plant cultivated in the RBG Sydney, acc. nr. 960475; orig. coll. Hay et al. 12042).
DISTRIBUTION: N. Borneo: Borneo.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Malaysia: Sabah, in the Maliau basin above the main Maliau Falls, and near Kampung Sepulut. It is endemic to Sabah.².
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber subglobose, about 4 cm across, producing no offsets. Leaf solitary, known only partly and from photographs; petiole to about 100 cm long; leaflets lanceolate, the upper surface deep velvet green, feathered bright silver along both sides of the main vein.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary and long-peduncled, known only from the type. Peduncle longer than the spathe, incompletely known, to about 130 cm long and 2 cm across. Spathe tongue-shaped, 15 cm long and 5.5 cm across, the base funnel-shaped, constricted above the base with the margins strongly reflexed backwards, the limb erect and slightly hooded with an acute top; outside the base dirty pale greyish green with a few scattered small whitish spots and the margins flushed purple; inside the upper part purple and the lower dirty creamish, the surface wholly smooth; the limb inside dark purple with scattered small rounded whitish spots. Spadix sessile, shorter than the spathe, 9 cm long; female zone cylindric, 0.9 cm long and 0.8 cm across, the flowers just touching or slightly apart; male zone cylindric and slightly widening at the top, 2.5 cm long and 0.7-0.8 cm across, the flowers congested; appendix elongate conical, 5.5 cm long and 1 cm across, the top subacute, the surface warted with staminodes below and changing to sparsely spiny towards the top, creamish. Ovaries globose to slightly elongate and slightly flattened from the sides, 1.5-2 mm long and 1.5 mm across, bilocular; style short and thick, about 0.3 mm long and 1.2 mm across; stigma conical, thin, shallowly two-lobed, about 1.3 mm across and 0.4 mm high, the surface warted. Male flowers of 3 or 4 stamens; stamens 1 mm long; filaments 0.3 mm long, free; anthers 1-1.5 mm across and 0.7 mm long, truncate, the pores apical and elongate; the pollen has not been seen. Staminodes on the appendix hemispherical and obtuse, slightly flattened from the sides, 1-2 mm across and 1-1.5 mm high, creamish.²
ECOLOGY:
Found in secondary forest over sandstone, in deep shade.²
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin venustus, “beautiful.” The name is for the leaf rather than the flower: the leaflets are deep velvet green and feathered bright silver along both sides of the midrib.²
NOTES:
1. It belongs with Amorphophallus manta of Sumatra, Amorphophallus bufo and Amorphophallus sparsiflorus of Peninsular Malaysia, all of which share a tongue-shaped spathe whose margins curve strongly backwards above the base - a shape found nowhere else in the genus.²
2. From all of them it differs in the silver variegation along the veins of the leaflets, in warts on the appendix, and in an appendix that is thin and creamish rather than dark glossy purple and inflated.²
3. The silvered leaf is otherwise matched only by Amorphophallus pendulus of Sarawak, itself a member of the same group.²
4. The whole species rests on very little: the inflorescence is known from the type alone, and the leaf only partly, from photographs.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus venustus Hett., A.Hay & Mood
2. Blumea 46: 277 (2001) — protologue.