Araceae
Alocasia

Alocasia longiloba Miq.

First published in Fl. Ned. Ind. 3: 207 (1856)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is China (S. Yunnan, Guangdong) to W. & Central Malesia. It is a subshrub and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.

Descriptions

CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011. araceae.e-monocot.org

General Description
Herbs, terrestrial, small to robust, to 150cm tall, evergreen or seasonally dormant. Stem rhizomatous, elongate, erect to decumbent, sometimes subtuberous, 8–60 × 2–8cm. Leaves 1–3 together, subtended by lanceolate papery-membranous cataphylls; petiole terete, 30–120cm, glabrous, sheathing in proximal 1/4, purple-brown to green, strikingly obliquely mottled chocolate-brown; leaf blade pendent, green or flushed with purple abaxially, dark green often with major venation gray-green adaxially, narrowly hastate-sagittate, 27–85 × 14–40cm; posterior lobes peltate for (5–)10–30% of their length, acute, anterior lobe with 4–8 primary lateral veins on each side, axillary glands conspicuous, interprimary collective veins weak. Inflorescences solitary or paired; peduncle 8–18cm, resembling petioles, subtended by cataphylls. Spathe 7–17cm, abruptly constricted 1.5–3.5cm from base; proximal spathe green, ovoid; limb erect, later reflexing, pale green, lanceolate, canoe-shaped, 5.5–7.5cm. Spadix somewhat shorter than spathe, 6–13 cm, stipitate, stipe whitish, conic, ca. 5mm; female zone 1–1.5cm; pistil green, subglobose, 1.5–2mm in diam.; stigma white, subsessile or on a slender style to ca. 0.5mm, 3- or 4-lobed; sterile zone 7–10mm, narrower than fertile zones; synandrodes mostly rhombic-hexagonal, flat-topped; male zone ivory, sub-cylindric, tapered at base, 1.2–2.5cm × 4.5–8mm; synandria 4–6-merous, ± hexagonal, ca. 2mm in diam.; appendix pale orange, 3.5–9cm, subcylindric, tapering to a point. Fruiting spathe glossy green, ovoid, 4–7cm. Fruit ripening orange-red, globose-ellipsoid, ca. 1.5 × 0.75cm.
Habitat
Tropical forests, thickets.
Vernacular
jian ye hai yu
Phenology
Fr. Aug–Oct.
[CATE]

Sources

  • CATE Araceae

    • Haigh, A., Clark, B., Reynolds, L., Mayo, S.J., Croat, T.B., Lay, L., Boyce, P.C., Mora, M., Bogner, J., Sellaro, M., Wong, S.Y., Kostelac, C., Grayum, M.H., Keating, R.C., Ruckert, G., Naylor, M.F. and Hay, A., CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011.
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2023. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2022 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2023. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2022 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images