AMORPHOPHALLUS ALBISPATHUS
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
Ab A. longituberoso (Engl.) Engl. & Gebrm. in tubere multiramoso et foliolis multo longioribus differt.
Typus: Hetterscheid H.AM.. 019-T (L holo; spirit coll.), 23-W-1991, cult. Hort. Bot. Leiden ex Thailand, 40 km south of Chumphon, growing in a rocky slope (orig. coll. Bogner 429,1971).
Photo by Allan Galloway
SYNONYMS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Thailand | Central Regions
CLIMATE: Unknown
ECOLOGY: It is a tuberous geophyte and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber elongate, up to c. 17 cm long, c. 7 cm in diam., pale brown. Leaf one, or two; petiole 10-55 cm long, 0.8-1.8 cm in diam. (base), turgid, smooth, greyish green, to the base often with a pinkish or reddish brown hue, or nearly entirely pale reddish brown, immaculate or with a few, scattered dark greyish spots; lamina moderately dissected, 15-90 cm in diam., leaflets elliptic, long acuminate (acumen c. 3.5 cm long), base long decurrent, 20-35 cm long, 6-10 cm in diam., subcoriaceous, upper surface moderately glossy, greyish green, lower surface paler.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary, long-peduncled; peduncle as petiole but slightly shorter, up to c. 40 cm long; spathe erect or concave, cymbiform, triangular-ovate, basal fifth convolute, top acuminate, 6-14 cm long, 3-10 cm in diam., outside dirty white with some scattered pale or dark grey-green punctiform spots and sometimes a very faint, pale purplish hue, inside as outside, base inside papillate, the most basal papillae hairlike and often laterally fused and/or with some irregular branches. Spadix shorter than spathe, up to 13 cm long, slightly curvate, sessile, emitting a strong, anise-like scent at female anthesis; female zone slightly conic, 1-2.3 cm long, 0.7-1.3 cm in diam., flowers congested; male zone slightly conic, 1.5—3(—6.5?) cm long, 0.5-1.2 cm in diam., flowers congested; appendix cylindric-fusiform, smooth with some shallow depressions, ivory white with a greenish hue, apex and base obtuse, 2-8 cm long, 0.8-2 in diam. Ovaries ± diamond-shaped or somewhat irregular in cross section, depressed, bright green, 3-4 mm in diam., c. 2 mm high, 3- or 4-locular; style slender, bright green, c. 1 mm long, 0.7-0.8 mm in diam.; stigma flattened, 3- or 4-lobed, 1.5-2 mm in diam., dirty white, surface shallowly scabrate-verruculate, lobes subhemispheric. Male flowers consisting of 2-4 (or 5) stamens; stamens with fusedfilaments, the latter strongly enlarged in the lower flowers; anthers short (c. 1 mm), hemispheric, pale orange-yellow, connective green; pores elongate, lateral or rarely subapical. Pollen striate.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet refers to the white spathe
NOTES: Amorphophallus albispathus is most similar to Amorphophallus longituberosus (Engl.) Engl. & Gehrm. They share the overall inflorescence morphology, the short, hair-like papillae in the spathe-base, the anise-like scent and elongate tuber. However, the leaf blade of Amorphophallus albispathus is much less strongly divided, the petiole is much sturdier, the tuber is much shorter and branched and the spathe is white (greyish or greenish in Amorphophallus longituberosus).
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
