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Araceae
Amorphophallus taurostigma Ittenbach, Hett. & Bogner
SUMMARY
Tuber depressed-globose to disciform, to ca. 20 cm in diam., pale brown, seasonally developing long, rhizomatous offsets with thickened top, the latter often loosening through rotting of the rhizomatous part. LEAF solitary, developing after flowering in the same season; petiole 60-130 cm long, 3-6 cm in diam., smooth, background colour pale grey, covered with numerous distinct or indistinct, partly confluent, circular pale brown spots often with dark brown margins; lamina, to ca. 180 cm in diam., highly dissected; leaflets ovate, elliptic-lanceolate or lanceolate, long acuminate, 1-26 cm long, 1-6 cm in diam., upper surface green with a distinct pinkish and whitish margin at the base. INFLORESCENCE long peduncled; peduncle 50-110 cm long, 2.5-3 cm in diam., coloured as petiole; spathe 22-50 cm long, ca. 15-30 cm in diam., between limb and base only a very shallow constriction on the dorsal side, outside base background pale greyish brown with minute white dots but largely covered by numerous, confluent, rounded spots, these bright pale green, usually with a dark green margin, upwards entirely dark green, outside limb pale purplish with a dense pattern of punctiform, dirty whitish-greenish dots, near the margin flushed dirty green, in the centre with dirty pale greyish-greenish rounded spots, limb strongly longitudinally folded and subspiralling, inside limb dirty purplish brown with faint, dark green spots and dark green veins, to the margin dark brown, inside base with broad, strong, branching and interconnecting ridges, dirty purplish brown, upper half dirty whitish and pale brownish with rounded, partly confluent pale green spots with darker green margins filled with whitish green dots, upwards turning entirely dark green. Spadix sessile, 30-68 cm long, longer than spathe; female zone cylindric, 1.5-5 cm long, 2-2.5 cm in diam., flowers distant; male zone cylindric to obconic, 2.5-6 cm long, 2-3.5 cm in diam., flowers congested; appendix elongate fusiform, 26-60 cm long, 2-4 cm in diam. at the broadest point, smooth but basal part shallowly grooved, apex narrowly obtuse, dirty olive-green, upwards slightly paler and brighter. Ovaries slightly elongate, laterally compressed, ovate to rounded in cross-section, 2-3 mm long, 1.3-2 mm in diam., base bright green, upper part blackish, unilocular or incompletely 2-locular, septum only developed (but weakly) in the upper half, 1 or 2 ovules; style conic, suddenly narrowed at the middle, 1-1.5 mm long, 1.2 mm in diam. at the base, 0.6-0.8 mm in diam. at the top, blackish but the base flushed with green; stigma strongly and deeply bilobed or tnlobed, laterally compressed, rounded in cross-section, 1.5 mm long, 1.8 mm in diam. at the base, pale whitish green turning dirty yellowish-orange, lobes strongly diverging, narrowly conic, acute, surface strongly verruculate but the top sometimes devoid of stylar tissue. Male flowers consisting of 3 to 5 stamens; stamens 1.5-3 mm long; filaments 0.5-1.5 mm long, basally connate; anthers 1-1.5 mm long, 1 mm in diam., truncate, off-white, connective olive green turning brown, pores elongate, curvate, connective slightly raised. Pollen inaperturate, ellipsoid, exine fossulate. INFRUCTESCENCE: Berries ovoid, 0.7-1 cm long, 0.5-0.6 cm in diam., l-(2-)seeded.