AMORPHOPHALLUS 'PETER PANCAKE'
PARENTAGE:
Amorphophallus henryi × Amorphophallus dunnii
ORIGIN:
Cross made at Juniper Level Botanic Garden (Tony Avent's breeding program) between Amorphophallus henryi (female) and Amorphophallus dunnii (male); a 2018 selection released in 2026 as Amorphophallus x dunryi 'Peter Pancake' by Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden.
HYBRIDIZER:
Tony Avent
DESCRIPTION:
The flowers are ground-hugging spikes about 1' tall that emerge in mid-May in North Carolina, with cinnamon-colored interior spathes, green-mottled exteriors, and a thick liver-colored spadix rising from the center.¹ After flowering, green-mottled stalks 2' tall emerge, and it is the only clone from the cross whose foliage does not emerge white.¹ The flower color came from the strongly fragrant Amorphophallus henryi parent and the speckled stems from Amorphophallus dunnii, and Avent noticed little fragrance on this plant.²
NOTES:
1. Plant Delights writes the cross as Amorphophallus dunnii x henryi, but the Juniper Level post names Amorphophallus henryi as the mother and Amorphophallus dunnii as the father.¹,²
2. Plant Delights sells it as Amorphophallus x dunryi 'Peter Pancake'; the x-name is a nursery label.¹
3. One of the named seedlings of Amorphophallus henryi × Amorphophallus dunnii.² See every recorded cross of these two parents.
STORY:
STORY TITLE: Crossed despite a reputation for incompatibility
Amorphophallus dunnii and Amorphophallus henryi were chosen for their garden performance and slightly overlapping flowering times, with Amorphophallus dunnii as the pollen parent because it yields more pollen than any other winter-hardy species.² At the time, Amorphophallus dunnii was said to be apomictic and incompatible with other species.² The crosses nevertheless gave almost 50 seeds, 39 of which sprouted, and most seedlings came up pure white and gradually turned green.² Avent took the albinos as a good sign, since wide crosses between distantly related aroids often produce many of them.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plant Delights Nursery: Amorphophallus dunryi Peter Pancake
2. Juniper Level Botanic Garden: Crossing into the Impossible
Photos by Plant Delights Nursery