ALOCASIA CELEBICA
SYNONYMS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Indonesia | Sulawesi | Minahassa Peninsula (NW Sulawesi) - known only from type collection
CLIMATE: Equatorial Climate
Humidity is high throughout the year, ranging from 75% to 85%
Temperature is varies between the seasons - within the range of 75°F/24°C to 95°F/35°C during the day. Minimum temperatures never dip below 70°F/20°C
Rainy season (November - June). The average annual rainfall is 3,200 mm
ECOLOGY: Unknown; the type was collected at 200 m altitude.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Herb c. 1.5 m tall; rhizome c. 4 cm diam., clothed in old cataphyll bases; leaves two together subtended by papery fibrous marcescent cataphylls; petiole ca 35 cm long, sheathing in the lower 1/4, densely and minutely pubescent, mottled with an oblique zig-zag pattern; blade somewhat ovato-sagittate, 36 cm long, rather thickly coriaceous; anterior lobe widest ca. 3 cm above the petiole insertion, the apex acute; anterior costa with 6 primary lateral veins on each side, diverging at 80-60° and running almost straight to the margin; axillary glands inconspicuous; secondary venation obscure; posterior lobes about half the length of the anterior, acute, distally slightly out-turned, the inner sides oblanceolate; posterior costae diverging
at ca. 60°, not naked in the sinus (leaf blade very slightly peltate - sinus obscured on holotype)
INFLORESCENCE: inflorescence unknown
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: N/A
NOTES: A. celebica described by Adolf Engler and Sijfert Hendrik Koorders.
The affinities of this species are not clear from the type, which is sterile. However, the papery-fibrous cataphylls, mottled petioles and (almost) peltate leaf suggest the Longiloba Group. The obscurity of the secondary venation is due to the thickness of the leaf blade, which is not a feature of any other member of this group. Koorders and Engler & Krause overlooked the pubescence on the petiole, which also occurs, among Sulawesi species, in Alocasia suhirmaniana, from which Alocasia celebica is amply distinct.
The holotype has three Koorders numbers on it: the field number 2587 attached to the specimen; the Herb. Koordersianum number 16162β on a label dated 25 Mar 1895 giving the provenance Ratatotok (as in the protologue), and a Museum Botanicum Berolinense label dated 3 Jul 1895 with the number Koorders 19750 and the provenance Ratahan.
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
