Arum cyrenaicum Hruby

Tuberous herb sprouting in early autumn from a discoid, vertical tuber 3.5-5 cm across, 2-2.5 cm thick. Petiole terete, 5.5-27 cm long, 3-6 mm wide, dark green with moderate purple staining. Leaf-blade broadly sagittate, apex obtuse to rather bluntly acute, 8.5-20 cm long, 4-12 cm wide, semi-glossy deep green. INFLORESCENCE smelling slightly of horse-dung. Peduncle not exceeding the leaves, terete, 3-11 cm long, 5-7 mm wide, semi-glossy mid-green, longitudinally striped with lighter green and moderately stained with purple. Spathe 10.5-16 cm long; spathe-tube oblong-cylindric, 2.5-4 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, constricted apically, exterior pale green with a narrow dull purple margin, interior dark purple , fading to pale green basally and deepening to plum-purple apically; spathe-limb elliptic, 8.5-12 cm long, 4-5.5 cm wide, erect, the apex drooping forwards as the inflorescence ages, acuminate, externally greenish, flushed with purple towards the edges, interior pale rosy purple to dark purple, fading to pale purple towards the tube and apex, limb green at the tip. Spadix c. ½ as long as the spathe-limb, 7-9.5 cm in total length; appendix slender-clavate, long-stipitate, 3.5-6.5 cm long, 5-7 mm wide, deep purple with a slight olive-green tinge, stipe darker. Staminodes in 3 or 4 whorls, forming a zone 4-6 mm long; bristles filiform, flexuous, 6-7 mm long, cream, minutely tipped with purple; bases pyriform, slightly verrucate, cream, with the verrucae tipped with lilac-mauve. Interstices: upper 4-5 mm long, lower 3.5-4 mm long, both longitudinally ridged, cream. Staminate flowers in a cylindric zone 2.5-3 mm long, 7-8 mm wide; anthers and connectives deep yellow , thecae with dull purple staining along the edges. Pistillodes in 2 or 3 whorls forming a zone 5-6 mm long; bristles filiform, flexuous, 5-6 mm long, cream, minutely tipped with purple; bases pyriform, slightly verrucate, cream, the verrucae tipped with lilac-mauve. Pistillate flowers in an oblong-cylindric cluster 1-2 cm long, 6.5-7 mm wide; ovaries oblong, truncate apically, mid-cream; stigma cream. Fruiting spike short-cylindric, 2.5-4 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide; berries pyriform, 4-9 mm long, 3-5 mm wide. Germination epigeal.