AMORPHOPHALLUS KACHINENSIS

Species

PROTOLOGUE:Amorphophallus kachinensis Engl. & Gehrm., published in Pflanzenreich 48:91 (1911). The protologue is reproduced below.

SYNONYMS:

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Amorphophallus bannaensis H.Li in J. Wuhan Bot. Res. 6(3): 209 (1988) Amorphophallus corrugatus N.E.Br. in Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1912: 269 (1912) Amorphophallus tianyangensis P.Y.Liu & S.L.Zhang in S. W. Agric. Sci. 1994: 5 (1994) Thomsonia sutepensis S.Y.Hu in Dansk Bot. Ark. 23: 443 (1968)

OTHER NAMES: 勐海蘑芋 (měnghǎi móyù, Chinese); 田阳蘑芋 (tiányáng móyù, Chinese; used for the synonym Amorphophallus corrugatus)

DISTRIBUTION: China (SE. Yunnan, Guangxi) to N. Indo-China: China South-Central, China Southeast, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Myanmar: Kachin State (type locality, Kachin Hills, Shaik Mokim s.n., 1898); Thailand: Chiang Mai Province (Doi Suthep, type locality of both Amorphophallus corrugatus and Thomsonia sutepensis); China: Yunnan (Menghai, Xishuangbanna) iNaturalist: Chiang Rai, Quảng Trị, Shan-Myanmar.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuber depressed-globose, brown, 5-30 cm in diam., 3-5 (or more) cm high, developing offsets; offsets incompletely known but probably rhizomatous. Leaf solitary; petiole 20 cm long (or more?), smooth, dirty white with dark green to reddish brown spots; lamina to 100 cm in diam.; leaflets elliptic, 6-9 cm long, 2-3 cm in diam., acute-acuminate.⁴

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence solitary, long-peduncled; peduncle 24-80 cm long, 0.7-1.0 cm in diam. (base), ivory-white, greyish or greenish with brown or purple blotches and greenish patches; spathe concave, base shortly convolute, 8-29 cm long, 7-14 cm in diam., outside green or greenish brown with green spots or purplish red stripes and spots, top purple, base inside with scattered, shallow, punctiform warts. Spadix much shorter than spathe, 6.5-18 cm long, emitting an unpleasant, rancid odor; stipe 0.2-1.0 cm long, 0.4-1.0 cm in diam.; appendix globose or subglobose, with several deep fissures.⁴

ECOLOGY:

Found in dense climax forest on limestone rocks; as Amorphophallus corrugatus, recorded from primary evergreen forest in shaded places on granite bedrock, growing together with Amorphophallus yunnanensis; altitude: 1000-1700 m⁴

PROPAGATION:

As Amorphophallus corrugatus: Cuttings from this species were only taken once in early August, and they rooted at 16.7%. Even with proper timing, this was among the most difficult species to root.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Kachin, the historical and modern region of northern Myanmar, with the Latin geographical suffix-ensis, “from” or “of.” The name therefore means “from Kachin.” The species occurs in Kachin State and adjoining parts of northern Thailand, Laos, and southern China, reflecting a broader montane Indochinese distribution.

NOTES:

1. Amorphophallus kachinensis is morphologically very close to Amorphophallus corrugatus N.E.Br. but differs in the much less complexly fissured appendix and the pores of the anthers, which position varies from subapical to sublateral, depending on the dimensions of the connective. From Amorphophallus yunnanensis it differs in the longer style, smaller stigma, unilocular ovule, the position of the pores and the color pattern in several parts of its morphology.⁴

2. In the Araceae treatments in Flora of Thailand and Flora of China, Amorphophallus corrugatus was still recognized as a proper species. Recent observations and a re-evaluation of the surface structure of the appendix led Hetterscheid to conclude that Amorphophallus corrugatus must be considered a redescription of Amorphophallus kachinensis, the latter name having priority: a series of photographs shows all intermediate stages between the typical brain-like convolutions of 'Amorphophallus corrugatus' and the few, vertical, deep fissures of Amorphophallus kachinensis in the strict sense.¹²

3. Amorphophallus corrugatus belongs to a group of species sharing the widely opened, concave spathe, a short spadix, and often blue berries. Other species of this group are Amorphophallus yunnanensis, Amorphophallus putii, and Amorphophallus tonkinensis.⁴

STORY:

STORY TITLE: One species, two faces

For a hundred and ten years this plant lived under two names. Engler and Gehrmann described Amorphophallus kachinensis in 1911 from a specimen Shaik Mokim had collected in the Kachin Hills of northern Myanmar in 1898 — a species whose appendix carries a few deep, vertical fissures. The very next year, N.E. Brown described Amorphophallus corrugatus from Kerr's collections on Doi Suthep in northern Thailand — a species whose appendix is a mass of brain-like folds, and named for exactly that wrinkling.

The two kept separate lives in the floras. Flora of China and Flora of Thailand both treated Amorphophallus corrugatus as a proper species; China even carries separate vernacular names for each face, 勐海蘑芋 for kachinensis and 田阳蘑芋 for corrugatus. The plants themselves refused to cooperate: across Myanmar, Thailand, Yunnan and northern Vietnam, populations kept turning up whose appendices sat awkwardly between the two extremes.

The resolution came in 2022, and it came as a picture. In Blumea, Naive, Hein and Hetterscheid published a series of six photographs — reproduced above — showing every intermediate stage from the few, deep, vertical fissures of typical Amorphophallus kachinensis to the fully convoluted, brain-like surface of 'Amorphophallus corrugatus'. One continuous character, sliding from one extreme to the other. Amorphophallus corrugatus was not a species; it was a redescription of the extreme end of Amorphophallus kachinensis, and the 1911 name has priority. Two faces, one species.

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus kachinensis Engl. & Gehrm.

2. Pflanzenreich 48:91 (1911) — protologue.

3. Alan Galloway — Amorphophallus kachinensis, alangallowaybotanicals.com.

4. Aroideana 19 (1996):P7 - 131

5. Flora of China: Amorphophallus corrugatus

6. Flora of China (Book): Amorphophallus corrugatus

7. Flora of China: Amorphophallus kachinensis

8. Flora of Thailand: Amorphophallus kachinensis

9. Amorphophallus sutepensis: Notulae Systematicae (Paris) 9: 123 (1941)

10. Revision of Amorphophallus Blume ex Decne in India. Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy 21(2): 105-120

11. Assembly and analysis of the chloroplast genome of Amorphophallus kachinensis from Southwestern China. Mitochondrial DNA Part B 9(4): 452-456