ARUM PALAESTINUM

PROTOLOGUE: Arum palaestinum , published in Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium Novarum 13: 6 (1854). The protologue is reproduced below.

SYNONYMS:

HETEROTYPIC SYNONYMS: Arum magdalenae Sprenger; Arum sanctum E.Dammann & Sprenger; Richardia sancta (Dammer) Pynaert

DISTRIBUTION: W. Syria, Lebanon to Jordan: Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territories, Syria.

SPECIES DESCRIPTION:

Tuberous herb sprouting in autumn from a discoid, vertically, rarely horizontally, orientated tuber 4.5–8 cm across, 2–2.5 cm thick. Petiole terete, 15–21 cm long, 3–7 mm wide, dark to mid-green, often stained purple to c. ½-way up. Leaf-blade sagittate to oblong-sagittate, apex acute to subacute, 15–36 cm long, 10–25 cm wide, deep green.

INFLORESCENCE:

Inflorescence either smelling of fermenting apples or weakly of dung and carrion, rarely scentless. Peduncle shorter than to just exceeding the leaves, terete, 8–27.5 cm long, 4–6 mm wide, pale to mid-green, often stained purple for c. ⅔ of its length. Spathe 9–23 cm long; spathe-tube oblong-cylindric, 2.5–5 cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, weakly constricted above, exterior greenish to pale brown, interior purple above, greenish white below; spathe-limb lanceolate, 6.5–23 cm long, 3.5–9 cm wide, erect on unfurling, ± reflexed at maturity, acuminate, externally pale green to pale greenish brown, with slight purple staining, internally deep uniform purple, the apex occasionally mid-green. Spadix c. ½ as long to subequal to the spathe-limb, 9.5–17 cm in total length; appendix fusiform-cylindric, obscurely stipitate, 7–19 cm long, 4–7 mm wide, black-purple. Staminodes in 1 or 2 whorls, forming a zone 1.5–3 mm long; bristles subulate, stiff, 9–11 mm long, deep purple; bases bulbiform, verruculose, purple. Interstices: upper 2–2.5 mm long, longitudinally ridged, purple; lower absent. Staminate flowers in a roughly oblong zone 9–13 mm long, 7–10 mm wide; anthers and connectives dark purple. Pistillodes in 2–5 whorls forming a zone 2.5–4 mm long; bristles subulate, stiff, 6–7 mm long, deep purple; bases bulbiform, verruculose, purple. Pistillate flowers in a cylindric cluster 11–14 mm long, 7–11 mm wide; ovaries oblong, 1.5–2 mm long, pale green stained with purple apically; stigma purple. Fruiting spike oblong-cylindric, 3–5 cm long, 2–3 cm wide; berries oblong, 4–11 mm long, 3.5–5 mm wide.

ECOLOGY:

Open hillsides, fallow fields, field margins, waste places. On limestone-derived terra-rossa and calcareous rocks, alluvial soils and soils derived from Eocene and basalt rocks; altitude: 0-900 m

DISTRIBUTION MAPS:

ETYMOLOGY:

Of Palestine.

NOTES:

1. The appendix odor is almost entirely ethyl acetate, with smaller amounts of ethanol and acetic acid — a smell of rotting fruit rather than of dung — and the species is reported to attract Drosophila.¹²

REFERENCES:

1. Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Arum palaestinum

2. Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium Novarum 13: 6 (1854) — protologue.

3. iNaturalist: Arum palaestinum

4. Boyce, P.C. 1993. The Genus Arum: a Kew Magazine Monograph. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

5. Boyce, P.C. 2006. Arum – a decade of change. Aroideana 29: 132–137.

6. Chartier et al. 2013. Geographical variations of odour and pollinators, and test for local adaptation by reciprocal transplant of two European Arum species. Functional Ecology.

7. Diaz et al. 2006. The effectiveness of some mechanisms of reproductive isolation in Arum maculatum and A. italicum (Araceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

8. Albre et al. 2003. Pollination ecology of Arum italicum (Araceae). Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society.

9. Linz et al. 2010. Molecular phylogeny of the genus Arum (Araceae) inferred from multi–locus sequence data and AFLPs. TAXON.

10. Gibernau et al. 2025. Mediterranean island endemic Arum pictum emits isomyocorene as a major component of floral scent. Comptes Rendus. Chimie.

11. Gibernau et al 2003. Arum Pollen longevity & viability.

12. Kite et al. 1998. Inflorescence odours and pollinators of Arum and Amorphophallus (Araceae). In: Owens & Rudall (eds), Reproductive Biology, pp. 295-315. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.