AMORPHOPHALLUS YAOI
PROTOLOGUE: Amorphophallus yaoi A.Galloway, Hett. & Medecilo, published in Blumea 65: 7 (2020).
Amorphophallus yaoi A. Galloway, Hett. & Medecilo, sp. nov. - Plate 5. Type: J.R. Callado JRCC1475 (holo PNH 256732; iso DLSU-DH), Philippines, Panay Island, Dingle, Iloilo (Bulabog Putian National Park), in shaded areas and hilly forest, 27 May 2014.
DISTRIBUTION: Philippines: Philippines.
DISTRIBUTION NOTE: Philippines: Panay, in the Bulabog Putian National Park at Dingle in Iloilo.².
SPECIES DESCRIPTION:
Tuber globose, somewhat irregular with raised areas, producing no offsets, 6-7 cm across and 6-7 cm high. Petiole 80-100 cm long and 2-3 cm across, largely smooth but slightly to strongly warted near the base, generally grey mixed with pale black or pale brown, or pale green, and marked with smaller and larger elongate elliptical dull whitish spots. Lamina 70-80 cm across, the rachises winged above the basal branches; leaflets elongate elliptical, 1.5-15 cm long and 2.5-8 cm across, glossy green above and glossy pale green beneath, the margin even and smooth, the tip long acuminate.²
INFLORESCENCE:
Inflorescence solitary and short-peduncled, held at ground level or 2-6 cm above it. Spathe broadly oval and bell-shaped, 25-30 cm long and 22-28 cm across, the base convolute and separated from the limb by a shallow constriction; inside the base purple to dull maroon and warted, the warts slightly apart, outside pale green with scattered whitish rounded spots and black dots; the limb oblique, inside pale green at the base with the margin or nearly the whole surface pale to dark purple or dull greenish beige, the margin partly rolled inwards and more or less wavy, outside pale green with a faint purplish cast to purplish with greenish vertical bands, the whole surface with scattered whitish rounded spots and fewer small dot-like purplish marks. Spadix sessile, 40 cm long, longer than the spathe; female zone cylindric, 4.5 cm long and 3 cm across, the flowers slightly apart; male zone cylindric to subcylindric with a constricted base, 5.5 cm long, 2 cm across at the base and 3 cm at the top, the flowers congested; appendix narrowly conical to slightly fusiform-conical, 30 cm long and 1.5-3 cm across just above the base, smooth, though the lowest centimetre sometimes carries thorn-like projections 3 mm long, dark purple to dull maroon, tapering gradually to the top. Ovary 4.5 mm across and 2.5 mm high, 1-3-locular, dark purple; style 5.5 mm long and 1 mm across, dark purple; stigma shallowly two-lobed, 1.25 mm high and 1.5 mm across on the long axis, minutely warted, creamy white to bright yellow. Male flowers with 3-5 stamens; stamen 3 mm long and 2.5 mm across, off-white; filament free; theca truncate, the pores slit-like and apical. Pollen creamy white to bright yellow. Infructescence cylindric; berries with one to three seeds, generally ovate, about 1.5 cm long and 1 cm across, smooth, dull reddish orange, the stigmas persisting; seeds about 8 mm long and 2-3 mm across.²
ECOLOGY:
Found in shaded places and hilly forest.²
ETYMOLOGY:
Named for George Yao, a plantsman whose work on aroids, on horticulture and on the conservation of the Philippine flora the authors wished to mark.²
NOTES:
1. It is one of four Philippine species that hold the inflorescence at or just above ground level, and comes closest to Amorphophallus urceolatus. Against that species it has a spadix much longer than the spathe, a far longer and narrower appendix, and only a shallowly two-lobed stigma.²
2. The appendix accounts for 30 cm of a 40 cm spadix, and the lowest centimetre of it sometimes bears thorn-like projections 3 mm long.²
3. The ovary varies from one to three chambers within the species.²
4. The stigmas persist on the ripe berries.²
REFERENCES:
1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Amorphophallus yaoi A.Galloway, Hett. & Medecilo
2. Blumea 65: 7 (2020) — protologue.