AMORPHOPHALLUS ABERRANS
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
A speciebus omnibus velo circum spadicis basin, staminodiis capillaceis aggregatis inter zonas masculas femineasque et inter pistilla, pilis longis stigmati insidentibus differt.
Typus: Murata, Fukuoka & Phengkhlai 1 r -16977 (KYO holo), Thailand, N Tak, between Tak and Ban Dan Lan Hoi, in dry savannah forest, c. 5 km east of Tak, c. 150 m alt., 24-vii-1973.
Photo by Allan Galloway
SYNONYMS: Buk (บุก)(Central).
DISTRIBUTION: Thailand | NORTHERN: Tak (type: Murata, Fukuoka & Phengklai T-16977, holotype -KYO); SOUTH-WESTERN: Uthai Thani
CLIMATE: Unknown
ECOLOGY: Dry savanna forests; ca 150 m alt.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber elongate, 15 by ca 3 cm, unbranched. Leaf solitary; petiole 40–120 cm by 8–10 mm, blackish or blackish green with scattered, irregular, pale greyish or dirty dark green spots, often with a paler margin; leaf blade ca 30 cm diam., rachises narrowly winged nearly to the base; leaflets obovate, elliptic-oval or elliptic, acute or acuminate, 13–30 by 6–15 cm, adaxially velvety green, venation impressed.
INFLORESCENCE:
Long pedunculate; peduncle 20–100 cm by 3–16 mm, smooth, basal half a little roughish owing to raised, hemispherical epidermal cells, dirty dark greyish green, paler towards the apex, with scattered dirty greyish ovate-elliptic spots with jagged margins and/or numerous, tiny, dark blackish green spots all over, and/or small whitish spots all over, spots decreasing in number towards the apex; spathe erect, lanceolate or narrowly elongate-triangular, 5–22 by 2.5–9 cm, apex acute, base shortly convolute but opening narrowly to the base at staminate anthesis, separated from the limb by a very faint constriction, persistent in fruit, exterior base dull greyish, or dull greyish green to greyish purplish with a few scattered, very faint paler greyish spots or darker minute dots, interior base dirty pale whitish greenish, the ventral side with or without a purple flush, margins with or without a pale purple flush and with or without numerous small, orbicular spots, limb exterior dull dark brown or dark green, with or without a central greyish longitudinal band, limb interior dark brownish, paler at the centre, or dull brownish purple with green margins, always with a few scattered, orbicular, pale whitish greenish spots, base within smooth, or shallowly ridged, in between ridges very shallowly verrucate; spadix subsessile, longer than spathe, 10–39 cm long, slightly sigmoid; pistillate flower zone cylindrical, 5–25 by 4–16 mm, flowers congested or slightly distant, with 4–6 staminodes at the base; ovaries depressed globose, 2 mm in diam., 1.5 mm long, circular or oval in cross-section, bright pale green; style shortly conical, 0.8 mm (base)–0.4 mm (apex) in diam., bright pale green, sometimes with purplish spots or flushes; stigma large, shallowly or deeply bilo-bed, 1–1.5 by 1–1.5 mm, oval in cross-section, surface verruculate, dirty orangeish but purplish at the base, or entirely creamy, lobes conical, acute; staminate flower zone elongate, cylindrical or slightly obconical, 1.5–5 cm by 5–15 mm, flowers in lower half slightly distant, in upper half more congested, or in slightly separated semispirals, or all slightly distant, sometimes with several pistillodes/staminodes in the lower part; staminate flowers consisting of (1–)2–4 stamens; anthers sessile, depressed, 0.8 mm long, 1–1.5 mm in diam., subquadrangular in cross-section, truncate, white, connective with a greyish spot, pores apical, oval at anthesis; steril interstice between staminate and pistillate flower zones lacking or to ca 4 mm long, staminodes in separate groups of 3–10; staminodes between the pistillate flowers with a shortly stalked, fusiform base, ca 1 mm long, the apex drawn out in a long hair-like part, ca 4 mm long, white; those in the sterile interstice with a variably sized depressed globose base, sometimes showing the shape of reduced thecae, including pores, 0.5–1 by ca 0.3–0.4 mm, hair-like extension 2–6 mm long, white; appendix more or less thin, elongate conical, acute, 7.5–32.5 by 1–2 cm at the base, base slightly rugulose and sometimes with a few scattered hair-like staminodes, upwards more shallowly rugulose, dirty dark olive-green to nearly black, or the base whitish to greenish and the upper part brown or pale dirty greyish green. Infructescence cylindrical, 5 cm long, 2 cm, in diam., dried staminodes remaining; fruits globose or slightly elliptic, ca 10 by 7–11 mm, ripening glossy white.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: This species’ epithet comes from an aberrant second underdeveloped spathe
NOTES: The general appearance of the inflorescence of Amorphophallus aberrans is reminiscent of Amorphophallus harmandii and Amorphophallus linearis but the details of the pistillate flower zone and the presence of a basal velum interior to the spathe are unique in the genus. The latter character may turn out to be an aberrant and underdeveloped second spathe, which is a not uncommon phenomenon in Araceae in general. The staminodes show an intermediate condition to the entirely hair-like staminodes in Amorphophallus cirrifer, Amorphophallus hirtus N.E.Br. (Taiwan), and Amorphophallus henryi N.E.Br. (Taiwan). In Amorphophallus cirrifer similar intermediate staminodes are often found in a small zone between the pistillate and staminate flower zones, often 3–5 clustered, apparently representing an entire staminate flower.
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
