AMORPHOPHALLUS AMYGDALOIDES
ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
Amorphophallo putii persimilis, staminodiis interpartes masculinas femineas gaudenti, stigmatibus duplo maioribus rotundatioribus differt.
Typus: Hetterscheid H.AM. 969-T (holoL,spirit coll.),Thailand,Kanchanaburi prov.,route 323,7km south ofThree Pagodas Pass (coll. from a plant cultivated in the Leiden Botanical Garden, 27 June 1999; orig. coll. M. Sizemore).
SYNONYMS: N/A
DISTRIBUTION: Thailand
CLIMATE: Unknown
ECOLOGY: N/A
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed globose, brown, 10 cm diam., 6 cm high, seasonally producing a few short rhizomatous offsets, these easily detaching from the main tuber. Petiole to 70 cm long, to 1.5 cm diam., smooth, pale green with many circular or elliptic indistinct whitish spots; lamina 120 cm diam., rachises winged distal fromthe basal branchings; leaflets elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, to 18 cm long, to 6 cm diam., upper surface mid-green.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary, long peduncled; peduncle to 47 cm long, to 1.2 cm diam., as petiole; spathe elliptic, to 24 cm long, to 20 cm diam., strongly concave, fornicate, acute, base coriaceous, shortly convolute, outside pale green with whitish green spots, inside uniformly whitish green but for a very small pinkish zone at the base, base within smooth. Spadix shorter than spathe, stipitate (stipe 0.5-1 cm long), 15 cm long ; female zone cylindric, 2 cm long, 2 cm diam., flowers congested; male zone cylindric, top slightly truncated,4 cm long, 2 cm diam., flowers congested; sterile zone between male and female zone short, slightly fusiform, 1 cm long, 2.2 cm diam., entirely covered with congested staminodes; appendix fusiform-conical, 8 cm long, 2.7 cm diam., base constricted, top subacute, surface smooth, creamy white, developing a strong almond-like scent at female anthesis. Ovaries depressed, mostly quadrangular in outline, 2 mm high, 2.5 mm diam., top truncated, whitish green, bilocular; style 1 mm long, 1.3 mm diam., whitish green; stigma hemispherical, elliptic inoutline, 1 mmhigh, 2-3 mm diam., shallowly bilobed, lobesobtuse, surface verruculate, pale yellow. Maleflowers consisting of 4 or 5 stamens; stamens 3 mm long;///aments 1 mm long, partly or entirely connate, creamy white; anthers elongate, 2 mm long, 1 mm diam., truncate, creamy white; pores apical, elongate, connecting with the margin through a groove;pollen striate, ellipsoidal (length/breadth 1.36), 61 |im long. Staminodes depressed, 2.5-3 mm long, 3-4 mm diam., angulate, top slightly hemispheric, smooth, creamy white.
VARIEGATED FORMS: N/A
ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet refers to the almond-like (Latin amygdal) scent of the spadix produced at female anthesis.
NOTES: —A member of the Amorphophallus yunnanensis alliance but the only known member with staminodes. Amorphophallus amygdaloides is in all other aspects very similar to Amorphophallus putii Gagnep. (Thailand).
CULTIVARS: N/A
HYBRIDS: N/A
