Amorphophallus nicolsonianus (Araceae), a New Species from India

The genus Amorphophallus Blume ex Decaisne occurs with eleven sections (sensu Engler 1911) and about 100 species in tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia. In India it is represented by seven species and one variety, including the herein described new species. The whole genus and its constituent taxa exhibit a high degree of vegetative plasticity. Like some other genera of the family, Arnorphophallus does not produce the leaves and inflorescences together; the inflorescence is produced first and lasts only for a short period. All this makes collection, identification and species delimitation of Amorphophallus difficult.
During my studies of Araceae in South India, an element quite different from all the species mentioned by Engler (1911) and other authors was collected in June 1977, but this consisted only of a leaf and an infructescence. Repeated field searches for the species in subsequent years, during the period of April to June, when all other species of this region produce their inflorescences, failed to produce specimens with an inflorescence. In January 1983, quite unexpectedly, I was able to collect specimens of this plant, some with leaves and some with inflorescences. After detailed study the taxon proved to be a new species.