AMORPHOPHALLUS PILOSUS

PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus pilosus Hett., published in Blumea 39: 269 (1994).

Amorphophallus pilosus Hett., spec. nov. Ab Amorphophallus hirto N.E. Brown staminodiis numerosis longis capilliformibus inter pistillos differt. - Typus: C.B. Robinson 1428 (P holo), Vietnam, Phu Khanh Prov., Nha-trang, Binh-than, in light forest, 21-iii-1911.

DISTRIBUTION: Vietnam: Vietnam.

DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Vietnam: Khanh Hoa Province - Nha Trang, at Binh Than, where the type was gathered in 1911; known only from that specimen. The type locality lies in the former Phu Khanh Province.².

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuber unknown. Leaf unknown.²

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence long peduncled; peduncle 90 cm long, 2 cm in diam. at the base, blotched light and dark green and black, smooth; spathe erect, elongate-triangular, acute, 28 cm long, 15 cm in diam., basal margin of the limb slightly spreading, outside blotched mostly white below, green in the middle and purplish green above, inside above purplish blotched with green, below dark lilac then white, base within with fleshy conical warts. Spadix sessile, much longer than the spathe, 44 cm long; female zone slightly conic, 2.5 cm long, 1.5 cm in diam., flowers slightly distant, with numerous staminodes in between; male zone obconic, 3 cm long, 1 cm in diam. at the base, 1.8 cm in diam. at the top, flowers distant, accompanied by scattered staminodes; sterile zone between male and female zone 0.5 cm long, with scattered groups of staminodes; appendix elongate fusiform, acute, 38 cm long, c. 3 cm in diam., dark green, with scattered flexuous hairs c. 1 cm long. Ovaries depressed globose, 2 mm in diam., c. 1.5 mm high, bilocular, one basal ovule per locule, surrounded by 3 or 4 staminodes; style c. 1 mm long, c. 0.6 mm in diam.; stigma oval in cross section, subcordate in longitudinal section, c. 1.2 mm in diam., c. 0.8 mm high, bilobed, lobes conic, surface minutely rugulose. Male flowers basically consisting of 5 or 6 stamens, sometimes accompanied by one or a few staminodes but over the larger part of the male zone dissolved into isolated stamens; stamens 0.6-1.5 mm long; filaments 0.1-1 mm long, basally connate; anthers c. 0.5 mm long, 0.5-0.7 mm in diam., subangulate in cross section, pores apical, oval at anthesis. Staminodes of the female zone implanted very near the base of the pistils, each an elliptic or obconic base c. 1 mm long carrying a hair-like extension c. 1.5 cm long.²

ECOLOGY:

Found in light forest²

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin pilosus, “hairy”: the appendix carries scattered flexuous hairs about a centimetre long, and the female zone is crowded with hair-like staminodes.²

NOTES:

1. Diagnosis: it differs from Amorphophallus hirtus in the numerous long, hair-like staminodes set between the pistils.²

2. Amorphophallus pilosus is characterised by that large number of long hair-like staminodes in the female zone. In general form, including the hairs on the appendix - though far fewer of them - it resembles Amorphophallus hirtus.²

3. Neither the tuber nor the leaf has ever been described. The species is known from one gathering made in 1911 and has not been collected since.²

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus pilosus Hett.

2. Blumea 39: 269 (1994) — protologue.

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