AMORPHOPHALLUS GALLAENSIS
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus gallaensis (Engl.) N.E.Br., published in Flora of Tropical Africa 8: 155 (1901). The protologue is reproduced below.
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Hydrosme gallaensis Engl. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 26: 422 (1899)
HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus gallaensis var. major Chiov. in Fl. Somala 2: 431 (1932) Amorphophallus gregoryanus (Engl.) Engl. & Gehrm. in H.G.A.Engler (ed.), Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 90 (1911) Amorphophallus kaessneri Engl. & Gehrm. in H.G.A.Engler (ed.), Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 90 (1911) Amorphophallus laxiflorus N.E.Br. in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. 8: 152 (1901) Amorphophallus sparsiflorus (Engl.) Engl. & Gehrm. in H.G.A.Engler (ed.), Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 89 (1911), nom. illeg. Hydrosme gregoryana Engl. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 36: 237 (1905) Hydrosme sparsiflora Engl. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 15: 462 (1892)
DISTRIBUTION: S. Ethiopia to Kenya: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Oromia.
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber disciform, to 15 cm in diam., reddish brown to greyish white. Leaf solitary; petiole ca. 80 cm long, reddish green with green and white spots; lamina to 100 cm in diam.; leaflets elliptic-obovate, to 12 cm long, acuminate.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence appearing before the leaf, long-peduncled; peduncle to 50 cm long; spathe to 40 cm long, base and limb separated by a shallow constriction, base outside greenish, purplish brown, or olive-green with white spots, inside brownish purple, upwards changing to greenish, surface with shallow, branching ridges, limb often helically twisted, margins strongly undulate, outside as base, inside brownish purple. Spadix much longer than spathe, to 70 cm long.
ETYMOLOGY:
From the historical geographical name Galla and the Latin suffix-ensis, “from” or “of,” referring to the region of southern Ethiopia that European botanists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries commonly called “Gallaland.” The original material was cited from Robe Mountain, near the headwaters of the Dana River. The name reflects the terminology of its time: “Galla” was an exonym applied to the Oromo people and their territory, not their own preferred name, and today the term is obsolete and widely regarded as offensive or pejorative. Oromo is the appropriate modern name.
NOTES:
1. The combination of the ridged spathe base and long styles identify this species from all other African ones. Its strongly twisted spathe with highly undulate margins give it a rather peculiar appearance, which is only matched by large specimens of Amorphophallus ankarana
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus gallaensis (Engl.) N.E.Br.
2. Flora of Tropical Africa 8: 155 (1901) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus gallaensis, alangallowaybotanicals.com.