AMORPHOPHALLUS VOGELIANUS
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus vogelianus Hett. & Billensteiner, published in Aroideana 26: 117 (2003).
3. Amorphophallus vogelianus Hett. & H. Billensteiner sp. nov. Type: Hetterscheid H.AM.1173-T (L, spirit coll., holotype), N. THAILAND, Chiang Dao, in rocks (coll. from a living plant cultivated in the Leiden Botanical Garden, 20 May 2003, orig. coll. H. Billensteiner s.n.). Diagnosis - Amorphophallo sizemoreae similis, pistillis remote positis, stylo conico, foliolis obovatis differt.
DISTRIBUTION: N. Thailand: Thailand.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Thailand: the north, at Chiang Dao.².
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber elongate and strongly branched, 12 cm long and 4 cm across at the top, the individual branches to 3 cm across, pale brown, producing one or a few leaves. Petiole dull reddish brown with a few scattered blackish short or long stripes, smooth, 23-40 cm long and 0.7-1 cm across. Lamina 40-60 cm across, open, with relatively few large leaflets, the rachises winged throughout; leaflets elliptic-obovate to obovate, 5-18 cm long and 2.5-9 cm across, the base of the outer leaflets broadly decurrent, the tip shortly acuminate, the upper surface velvety deep green with the margin very thinly lined reddish.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence long-peduncled; peduncle thin, 30 cm long and 5 mm across, smooth, uniformly pinkish brown with a few scattered thin short blackish streaks, paler upwards. Spathe elliptical and erect, 7.5 cm long and 5 cm across, the base and limb scarcely separated except by a very faint constriction on the dorsal side, the base very shortly convolute, outside pale whitish green, inside smooth with very faint depressions and pale green; the limb acute with an arched top and concavely inrolled margins, creamish inside and out. Spadix sessile, slightly longer than the spathe, 8 cm long; female part cylindric, 0.8 cm long and 0.6 cm across excluding the styles, the flowers apart and sunk into the axis of the spadix, the axis pale bluish green; male zone cylindric, 1.7 cm long and 0.9 cm across, the flowers congested; appendix elongate conical, 5.5 cm long and 1 cm across near the base, the base constricted and the top obtuse, the surface smooth, dull pale greenish with a creamish flush at the base. Ovaries disc-shaped and sunk into the axis of the spadix, oval in cross section, 3 mm on the long axis by 2 mm on the short, 1.5 mm high, the top truncate and tapering to the base, bilocular, pale green; style short, 0.3 mm long and 0.5 mm across, cylindric, pale green; stigma conical, distinctly two-lobed and wavy-edged, 0.8 mm across and 0.8 mm high, white, warted. Male flowers of 2-4 stamens; stamens 2 mm long; filaments thick, 1 mm long and 1.8 mm across, off-white; anthers truncate, 1 mm long and 1 mm across, off-white, the pores apical and slit-like.²
ECOLOGY:
The type was gathered among rocks.²
ETYMOLOGY:
Named for Art Vogel, greenhouse manager at the Leiden Botanical Garden, for his skill in growing the genus and for the collections he made on expeditions with the National Herbarium at Leiden.²
NOTES:
1. It belongs to an ornamental group around Amorphophallus saururus, sharing the branching elongate tuber, velvety green leaflets edged reddish, a whitish spathe and inrolled spathe margins.²
2. In leaf and inflorescence it comes closest to Amorphophallus sizemoreae, but differs in a tuber vertical in all its parts, obovate leaflets, a more or less obtuse appendix, ovaries sunk into the axis of the spadix, conical stigmas and pistils set well apart.²
3. The female flowers are sunk into the spadix axis rather than standing out from it, so the pale bluish green axis shows between them.²
4. The Latin diagnoses in this paper were supplied by J.F. Veldkamp, whom the author thanks.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus vogelianus Hett. & Billensteiner
2. Aroideana 26: 117 (2003) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus vogelianus, alangallowaybotanicals.com.