AMORPHOPHALLUS HILDEBRANDTII
PROTOLOGUE:Amorphophallus hildebrandtii (Engl.) Engl. & Gehrm., published in Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 90 (1911). The protologue is reproduced below.
SYNONYMS:
HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS: Hydrosme hildebrandtii Engl. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 1: 187 (1880)
DISTRIBUTION: Madagascar | Diana | Nosy Be; Lokobé Reserve; near Hellville
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber depressed-globose to disciform, to ca. 20 cm in diam., pale brown, developing long, rhizomatous offsets, these with a swollen apex. Leaf solitary; petiole to ca. 110 cm long, background color pale grey, with numerous, distinct or indistinct, partly confluent, circular, pale brown spots with dark brown margins; lamina to ca. 180 cm in diam., highly dissected; leaflets oval, elliptic-lanceolate or lanceolate, long-acuminate, 4-26 cm long, upper surface green with a distinct pinkish margin at the base.
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence long-peduncled; peduncle as petiole, to ca. 100 cm long; spathe triangular ovate, ca. 40 cm long, outside base background pale greyish brown with minute white dots but largely covered by numerous, confluent, rounded spots, these bright pale green, usually with a dark green margin, upwards entirely dark green, outside limb maroonish or pale purplish with a dense pattern of punctiform, dirty whitish greenish dots, near the margin flushed dirty green, in the center with dirty pale greyish greenish rounded spots, base and limb poorly differentiated, limb strongly longitudinally folded and helically twisted, inside limb maroon or dirty purplish brown with faint, dark green spots and dark green veins, to the margin dark brown, inside base with broad, strong, branching and interconnecting ridges, greenish or dirty purplish brown, upper half dirty whitish and pale brownish with rounded, partly confluent pale green spots with darker green margins filled with whitish green dots, upwards turning to entirely dark green. Spadix longer than spathe, 57-65 cm long.
ETYMOLOGY:
Named in honor of Johann Maria Hildebrandt (1847–1881), a German botanist and explorer who made extensive natural-history collections in eastern Africa and Madagascar. Hildebrandt spent the final years of his life exploring Madagascar, where he died in 1881, and numerous African and Malagasy organisms were subsequently named for him. Amorphophallus hildebrandtii is itself endemic to Madagascar.
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus hildebrandtii (Engl.) Engl. & Gehrm.
2. Pflanzenr., IV, 23C: 90 (1911) — protologue.
3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus hildebrandtii, alangallowaybotanicals.com.