ALOCASIA PUBER
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
SYNONYMS: Alocasia margaritae, Alocasia ovalifolia, ?Alocasia crassinervia, Caladium pubigerum
DISTRIBUTION: West to central Java, ?southern Sumatera, Peninsular Malaysia
CLIMATE: Tropical humid climate
Humidity is moderate throughout the year, ranging from 60% to 70%
Temperature is varies between the seasons - within the range of 48°F/9°C to 88°F/31°C during the day. Minimum temperatures never dip below 45°F/7°C
Rainy and humid season (October to May) and a dry season between June and October. The average annual rainfall is 1,200 mm
ECOLOGY: In open swampy areas, and wet places in open forests, sea level to ca. 1000 m alt.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Robust to massive herb; stem erect to decumbent, to ca. 10 cm diam.; leaves several together; petiole to ca. 1.1-1.5 m long, sheathing in the lower ca. 1/3, green to dark red, sparsely glandular, it and abaxial lamina venation sparsely to densely hairy; hairs straight, short, ca. 0.5 mm long, colourless fresh, becoming yellowish brown when dry; blade usually sagittate, occasionally broadly ovato-sagittate, to ca. 80 cm x 70 cm; anterior lobe ca. 60 cm long, widest at about the base; anterior costa with ca. 10 primary lateral veins on each side, diverging at ca. 50°, with rather conspicuous glands in their axils; primary veins distally often bearing subsidiary veins (with glands in their axils) running the same course as the secondary venation; secondary veins rather prominent abaxially, numerous and closespaced, running into well defined interprimary collective veins; posterior costae diverging mostly at ca. 90°, naked in the sinus for up to 4 cm; posterior lobes ca. 30 cm long, more or less triangular, rarely rounded
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescences appearing as clusters in the centre of the leaf crown, up to ca. 14 together not interspersed with fohage leaves; peduncle hardly exserted from subtending bracts; spathe ivory white, suffused purple, especially near the base of the hmb margins, with scattered purple horizontal elliptic glands especially near the junction of spathe and peduncle, 9-18 cm long; lower spathe narrowly ovoid, somewhat angular in cross section, differentiated from the limb by an initially rather weak constriction about 1/3 of the way from the base of the spathe and corresponding to about midway along the length of the male zone of the spadix; hmb more or less cucullate at first, leathery-membranous, broadly lanceolate with the tip obtuse, sometimes conspicuously apiculate, initially sharply reflexed at the base, forming an annular trough, the rest erect, then entirely reflexed; spadix shghtly shorter than the spathe, ca. 6-15 cm long, very shortly stipitate; female zone 1-2 cm long, subcylindric; ovaries very pale green, subglobose, close-packed, ca. 1.2 mm diam., style short, slender, ca. 1 mm long; stigma ivory, cap-like, weakly 3-4-lobed; sterile interstice hardly more slender than the fertile zones, ca. 2 whorls of flat white synandrodia ca. 2 mm diam.; male zone yellowish ivory, half within and half exserted from the lower spathe chamber, ca. twice as long as female zone; synandria mostly rhombohexagonal and ca. 2 mm diam., sometimes united into irregular horizontal bands; synconnective impressed, not overtopping the thecae; appendix pale apricot, about half the length of the spadix, about as thick as the male zone, slightly narrowed at its base and distally tapering to a pointed tip; fruiting spathe ca. 4 cm long
VARIEGATED FORMS: WHITE, YELLOW
ETYMOLOGY: The epithet comes from the latin puber (hairy), referring to the hairiness of the leaves and peduncles (see Notes 4)
NOTES:
1. No Hasskarl material has been located that might be the type of Alocasia puber. In the protologue, Hasskarl cited Arum sylvestre Rumph. (Herb. Amb. 5: 310, t. 107) as a synonym, but with doubt indicated by 'an'. Rumphius' concept of Arum sylvestre included more than one 'species', though only one was illustrated. The plate, which does not appear to be of a Javan plant at all, bears insufficient resemblance to Alocasia puber in the sense of Schott and subsequent authors, to warrant using it as the type. It gives no indication of the characteristic features of pubescence on the leaves and horizontal red markings on the lower spathe that Hasskarl mentions for Colocasaia puber and, which indicate that Hasskarl's and Schott's concepts are almost certainly of the same species. Moreover, it shows a configuration of inflorescences paired amongst the leaves, which is also not characteristic of this species. It is probable that Rumphius' plate is of the east Malesian Alocasia aequiloba N.E. Br. Hence there is no alternative but to designate a neotype. There are very few fertile Javan collections to select from, Backer 17192 being the most complete.
2. Alocasia margaritae L. Linden & Rodigas was described from Javan material cultivated in Europe. No herbarium material has been located. The illustration in the protologue is of a sterile, immature plant, but the description includes reference to the puberulent petioles typical of Alocasia puber and the depicted leaf shape is not incompatible with that species. Alocasia margaritae appears to be no more than a particularly strongly red-brown colored variant of A. puber and it is epitypified accordingly to remove all doubt.
3. The identity Ridley (1904) intended for Alocasia ovalifolia is obscured by various muddles. The description in the protologue is scant and sloppy. The leaf is said to have 20 pairs of 'nerves', which I understand to be primary lateral veins. I know of no species of Alocasia, with the exception of the gargantuan Bornean Alocasia robusta that has this many. The spathe is said to be up to six inches long, while the dimensions given for its components, the lower part and the limb, add up to four and a half inches. On top of these incongruities, the description records no distinctive features by means of which it could be matched with known Malay Peninsula species. Four syntypes were cited thus: 'Johore, base of Gunong Panti; Selangor, Tras Route at the 15th mile Pahang Track {Ridley 8487), Ginting Peras, Bukit Kutu; Perak, Sungei Larut {Wray 2457), Larut Hills; Penang, Moniots Road {Curtis).' All of these are missing from or perhaps misplaced in the Singapore herbarium and are not duplicated elsewhere, with the exception of Wray 2457. That specimen is of Alocasia puber, but it is not annotated by Ridley with any name and by no-one as Alocasia ovalifolia. I suspect therefore that it was cited in error; indeed it was later cited as A. puber in Ridley's Flora, while other previously cited material remained under Alocasia ovalifolia (Ridley 1925: 99). Other specimens, not syntypes but which might guide interpretation of Alocasia ovalifolia, are equivocal. There are two collections made by Ridley and annotated by him with this name. One is Ridley s.n. (SING) with the locality Thaiping Hills'; this is Colocasia esculenta. The other is Ridley 13392 (SING), collected at Batu Caves in 1908 (but not cited in the Flora). This latter is of a common Malay Peninsula species (see Alocasia inornata Hallier f.) which seems very unlikely to have been overlooked by Ridley as a species distinct from other Alocasia in the Malay Peninsula.
It seems probable to me (A. Hay), in spite of his bad description, his citation of Wray 2457 and his misdetermination of a plant in another genus as Alocasia ovalifolia, that the plant in Ridley 13392 is what Ridley intended Alocasia ovalifolia to be. Nevertheless, the ICBN demands lectotypification from among the syntypes (Art. 9.9). An alternative is not to lectotypify, and simply leave the issue open in the hope that the remaining syntypes turn up one day.
However, since the name Alocasia ovalifolia has never been taken up by subsequent authors [Henderson and Furtado, for example, both misapphed other names to this species (i.e. Alocasia inornata) on herbarium sheets, which suggests they had never seen the other syntypes either] and cannot be said to be in current use, there seems to be no pressing need to do other than simply dispose of the name on the basis of the identity of the one syntype that is available. Alocasia ovalifolia is therefore reduced to the synonymy of Alocasia puber.
4. Backer & Bakh. /. (1968: 119) pointed out that the epithet 'pubera' is grammatically incorrect, and amended it to puber without elaboration. It is evident that Hasskarl intended the epithet to refer directly to the hairiness of the leaves and peduncles, for in the description he used the adjectival ‘puberis’ (in the ablative plural) referring specifically to those parts of the plant that are hairy. It would appear that he used the word as though it were a 'group A' adjective such as glaber, which it is not. Puber (or pubes) is used in mediaeval and classical latin as a noun referring to adolescence, and puber was used in classical latin specifically of plants as an adjective referring to juiciness (which Hasskarl also described in the protologue of this plant, but without using this word). In botanical latin puber (or preferably pubes) could be used as a substantive epithet for hairiness, and puberula as an adjectival epithet for hairy [see Oxf. Lat. Diet., ed. P.G.W. Clare, 1982]. Since Bakh. /. has already chosen one of these alternative corrected forms, I (A. Hay) follow him.
5. Alocasia puber is apparently very rare in the Malay Peninsula, having been collected there only four times, and only once at all recently (Chua FRI 26675). Although Javan representatives have been collected more frequently, there is very little fertile material from which to judge intraspecific variability, but the Malay Peninsula element seems to have a rather smaller inflorescence. The collections made by Corner also show rather widely rounded posterior lobes to the leaf blade in contrast to the more typical triangular shape in Java, and it may be that the Malay Peninsula element could be recognised as a segregate subspecies once it is better known. However, it evidently has the same habitat preference as A. puber in Java.
6. A single collection from Sumatera (Praetorius s.n.) determined by Schott as Alocasia macrorrhizos, is apparently of this or a closely allied species, being quite densely hairy on the leaf underside, with rather prominent secondary venation forming well defined interprimary collective veins. The specimen, from Palembang, is sterile.
Other specimens seen: PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: Terengganu, Besut, Sg. Kemia, foothills of G. Lawit, Chua FRI 26675 (KEP); Terengganu, Kemaman, Ulu Kajang, Corner 30138 (SING); Johore, Mawai Rd., Corner s.n. (SING); Johore, Jason Bay, Mile 4, Block 1, Sinclair 10869 (E, SING); Perak, Sg. Larut, Wray 2457 (K, SING). SUMATERA: Palembang, Praetorius s.n. (L). JAVA: Tjidadapi Tjibeber, Preanger, Cadas Kabang, Bakhuizen 2484 (BO); Blume s.n. (L) & 792 (L); Bidara Tjina, Edeling s.n. (BO); Tjiloewar, nr Bogor, Hallier s.n. (BO); Danau Situgunung, Hay & Yuzammi 14001 (NSW); Djapara Ngarongan, Koorders 34996b (BO, L); Bantam, Lebakkidoel, G. Kantjana, Koorders 41042b (BO); Kuhl & van Hasselt s.n. (L); Djasinga, 45 km W of Bogor, Nicolson 938 (BO); Tjitjadas, Batavia, van Steenis 5364 (BO); Cult. Bogor, Wigman s.n. (BO); Blok Cimanuk, Rawa Danau Natural Reserve, Serang, West Java, Yuzammi 297013 (BO, NSW), Yuzammi 297016 (BO, NSW); Desa Ciomas, Kampung Pabuaran, Serang, West Java, Yuzammi 297001 (BO, NSW), Yuzammi 297017 (BO, NSW); Zollinger 472 (K).
Alocasia puber (saepe 'pubera') (Hassk.) Schott, Syn. Aroid. (1856) 47; Miq., Fl. Ind. Bat. 3 (1856) 209; Schott, Prodr. Syst. Aroid. (1860) 146; Engl, in A. & C. DC, Monogr. Phan. 2 (1879) 500; Koord., Exkurs.-Fl. Java 1 (1911) 261; K. Krause & Engl., Pflanzenreich 71 (IV.23E) (1920) 79; Koord., Exkurs.-Fl. Java 4 (1923) 197, fig. 398; Ridl., Fl. Mai. Pen. 5 (1925) 99; Backer & Bakh. /., Fl. Java 3 (1966) 119. - Colocasia pubera JJassk., Cat. Bog. (1844) 302. - Neotype: Indonesia, Java, Djampangs, Cicurug, 1914, Backer 17192 (BO, designated here).
Alocasia margaritae L. Linden & Rodigas, 111. Hort. 33 (1886) 155; Anon., Kew Bull. (1888) 92; Engl. & K. Krause, Pflanzenr. 71 (IV.23E) (1920) 92. - Type: L. Linden & Rodigas, 111. Hort. 33 (1886) t. 611. Epitype: Java, Desa Ciomas, Kampung Pabuaran, Serang, West Java, 12 Dec 1997, Yuzammi 297017 (BO, NSW, designated here - see below).
Alocasia ovalifolia Ridl., J. Straits Br. Roy. Asiat. Soc. 41 (1904) 47; Ridl. Materials Fl. Mai. Pen. 3 (1907) 18; Engl. & K. Krause, Pflanzenr. 71 (IV.23E) (1920) 109; Ridl., Fl. Mai. Pen. 5 (1925) 99. - Type: Malaysia, Perak, Sungei Larut, July 1888, L. Wray Jr. 2457 (SING, lecto, selected here; K, isolecto; see discussion below).
?Alocasia crassinervia Engl., Pflanzenr. 71 (IV.23E) (1920) 82. - Type: Indonesia, cult. Hort. Bogor, Jan/Feb 1906, A. Engler 4101 (B!, holo) - see note under Alocasia sarawakensis.
[Caladium pubigerum Bl., mss]
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
