Amorphophallus kiusianus (Makino) Makino

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

General Description

Tuber depressed globose, to ca. 20cm in diam., to ca. 12cm high, [no offset development (Japanese specimens) or] with a few sessile, globose offsets (mainland Chinese specimens). Leaf solitary; petiole glossy, dirty olive-green or grayish green, with narrowly oval or irregular whitish or very pale greenish spots and numerous tiny dark green dots, to ca. 65 × 4cm, glabrous; leaf blade 60–90cm in diam., rachises winged, distal from basal main branchings; leaflets adaxially bright green with a narrow pale violet margin, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate, 6–20 × 3–4.5cm, margin undulate, apex moderately to long acuminate. Inflorescence solitary, long pedunculate; peduncle colored as petiole, 40–100cm (in fruit to ca. 120cm), 1.5–4cm in diam. Spathe outside dark greenish, greenish pinkish, or glossy dark purplish brown, with small, whitish spots, margin with a narrow, reddish violet line, inside pale pinkish with a purplish base, purplish and greenish, or entirely dark brown, with or without a greenish margin, latter sometimes flushed pinkish, sometimes only medially pale green, otherwise with rounded, whitish spots, base outside dark green or dark greenish brown, with small, rounded whitish spots and blackish green veins, triangular, base rounded, 9–25 × 4–13cm, shallowly or clearly constricted between base and limb; limb at first oblique, then reflexing and bending downward, margin reflexed or undulate; base within dark purple and with numerous ± distant, conic warts, occasionally with small, whitish spots. Spadix sessile or subsessile, shorter than, equal to, or longer than spathe, 9–22cm; female zone slightly conic, 1–4 × 0.5–2cm; ovary bright pale green, ± obovoid, angulate in cross section, ca. 2.5mm high, ca. 2mm in diam., 2-loculed; style bright pale green or dark brown, nearly absent, ca. 0.2 × 1mm, bifurcate at apex; stigma pale greenish gray, shallowly or distinctly 2-lobed-sinuous, slightly oval in cross section, ca. 0.8mm high, ca. 1.5mm in diam., minutely papillate; staminodes between male and female zone isolated or in groups of 2–4, or together with functional stamens as part of lowermost male flowers, consisting of a highly reduced stamen and a long, brown hair on connective, those in groups often forming one common disciform base with grooves corresponding with limits of defunct stamens, those on appendix consisting of only a brown hair and each from a shallow depression; male zone cylindric or slightly obconic, 2.5–4.5 × 0.5–2cm; male flowers consisting of 4 or 5 stamens; stamens pale yellow, ca. 1.5mm; filaments ca. 0.5mm, entirely connate; anthers subtruncate or truncate, mostly subrectangular in cross section, 1–2 × ca. 1 mm; connective brownish; pores apical, elongate; appendix fusiform-conic or narrowly fusiform, 4–16cm, 1–3cm in diam. near base, apex acute or obtuse, entirely blackish or with scattered, tiny green spots, or entirely dark greenish, glossy, glabrous or with shallow depressions, base grooved, otherwise naked or with scattered, thin, violet-brown hairs, emerging from depressions, these to ca. 1cm; pollen striate-areolate, released in strings. Infructescence with dried spathe base sometimes remaining, cylindric, 5–22 × 3–4.5cm. Berries glossy, at first bright green, turning pinkish purple and finally deep blue, rounded or oval, ca. 1 × 0.8–1cm, 2-seeded. Seeds oval in longitudinal section, flattened on one side, ca. 8 × 6 × 4mm; testa black, moderately glossy, minutely rugulose.

Phenology

Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. May–Jul.

Habitat

Shaded, semishaded, or sun-exposed places, plantations, secondary forests, mixed bamboo and broad-leaved forests, orchards.

Vernacular

dong ya mo yu