AMORPHOPHALLUS PRAINII
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus prainii Hook.f., published in The Flora of British India 6: 516 (1893).
Amorphophallus Prainii, Hook. f.; spathe obliquely campanulate tube very broad subcylindric base truncate, limb short orbicular-ovate margins waved, spadix very stout, exserted appendage very large conoid smooth much longer and broader than the infl. Perak; Larut, Scortechini, Kunstler. Penang (Ic. in Herb. Kew).
SYNONYMS:
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus bintangensis Ipor, Tawan & Meekiong in Folia Malaysiana 11: 43 (2010) Amorphophallus loerzingii Alderw. in Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 3, 1: 367 (1920) Amorphophallus panomensis Gagnep. in Notul. Syst. (Paris) 9: 120 (1941)
DISTRIBUTION: Indo-China to Sumatera: Laos, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Thailand.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: iNaturalist: North Sumatra.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber 6-10 in. diam., not bulbilliferous. Leaves 4 ft. broad, leaflets 4-8, lanceolate, caudate-acuminate; petiole 3-5 ft., green mottled with grey, or white and red.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Peduncle 3-5 in.; sheaths very large, 8-12 by 4 in., pinkish. Tube, or rather convolute parts, of spathe 2 in. long and as broad, pale green spotted with white; limb 6-8 in. diam., yellow, base within rough purple-brown. Male infl. subturbinate, fem. about as long; appendage 6-8 in. by 2-3 diam., cream-coloured, smooth. Anthers linear. Stigma 2-lobed.²
PROPAGATION:
Juniper Level Botanic Garden's sole trial with this species resulted in 5.4% rooting from early September cuttings.
ETYMOLOGY:
Named in honor of Sir David Prain (1857–1944), Scottish botanist and one of the major figures in British colonial botany. Prain spent much of his career in India, eventually directing the Royal Botanic Garden at Calcutta before becoming Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The Latinized epithet prainii means “of Prain.”
NOTES:
1. Hooker's own comparison: the spathe and spadix of Amorphophallus prainii are more like those of Amorphophallus campanulatus - the name then in use for what is now Amorphophallus paeoniifolius - than are those of the other species with short styles.²
2. The tuber is not bulbilliferous, which separates it at once from Amorphophallus oncophyllus, described immediately before it in the same work and bearing bulbils on the leaf.²
3. The species was drawn up from Malayan material - Scortechini's and Kunstler's gatherings at Larut in Perak, together with an illustration at Kew from Penang.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus prainii Hook.f.
2. The Flora of British India 6: 516 (1893) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus prainii, alangallowaybotanicals.com.
5. Notulae Systematicae 9: 119 (1941)
6. Propagation of Amorphophallus by Leaf Petiole Cuttings — Juniper Level Botanic Garden