Amorphophallus gallaensis (Araceae)
Tuber very flat globose, 6-15 x 3-8 cm, red brown to grey white. LEAF apearing after the flower, up to 1 m high. Petiole 30-50 cm long or more, red to green and mottled green and white. Blade up to 1 m in diameter; terminal leaflets elliptic to inversely egg-shaped, 3-12 x 1-3 cm, attenuating in a 0.5 cm long tip. Cataphylls 2; 2-20 x 1,5-3 cm, the inner one more than 20 cm long and pink with black markings, the outer one brown and membranous. Peduncle smooth, 20-45 x 0.8-2.5 cm, a weak olive green to brownish with white spots and black markings, appearing before the leaf, basally sometimes with adventitious roots. INFLORESCENCE: Spathe 16-40 cm long; divided by a slight constriction into an elongate-cylindrical to ovoid (‘oval’) tube and a long, narrow, triangular, open limb. Tube 6-13 x 3-9 cm; outside greenish, purple to brownish or olive to green, with white spots; inside basally brownish to purple, with strongly branching, barely raised, longish ribs, which extend upward for 4-5 cm, then a greenish, smooth zone at the transition to the open limb. Open limb 10-27 x 8-15 cm; long triangular; sometimes somewhat twisted; attenuating in a small tip; outside green, purple to brownish or olive to green, with white spots; inside purple to brown; margin strongly undulate. Spadix sessile, emerging from the axis at an angle, 30-70 cm long, 1½ to twice as long as the spathe. Pistillate zone cylindrical, 1.7-4 x 1.5-2 cm, flowers partly congested. Staminate zone long obconical to cylindrical, 2.5-4 x 0.8-2.3 cm, flowers may be distant [and] in groups of 3-5 stamens, but generaly [flowers] congested. Appendix long conical; 25-80 x 1.3-1.7 cm (base); ± smooth, or rough due to narrow, inconspicuous longitudinal ribs; reddish to brown or purple to green; without clear constriction basally. Staminodes absent; sterile zone between pistillate and staminate zone absent; ratio of pistillate to staminate zone 0.6-0.8 : 1. Pistillate flowers 4-5 mm long, tilted upwards; ovary globose to ovoid, 2-2.5 x 1.5-2 mm, unilocular, placentation basal, green and apically becoming brownish; style 2-3 mm long, abruptly emerging from the ovary, somewhat bent towards the axis, dark purple to brown, sometimes dotted pink; stigma plurimorphic, 0.5-0.7 x 0.5-0.7 mm, somewhat zygomorphic, subapical (‘seitlich am Griffel sitzend’), stigmas unlobed button-shaped to triangular or bi- to tri-humped, white to green. Staminate flowers 1-1.75 x 1-2 mm; anthers free, cubical, 1 x 1 mm, greenish to cream; connective dark brown to purple; filaments 0.2-0.5 mm long, 3-5 together forming a platform-like “Columna”, these can be clearly delimited groups in larger inflorescences, otherwise congested; pores apical, circular to broadly elliptic (‘oval’), one pore per theca visible. Pollen inaperturate, 30-50 x 25-41 µm, ovoid, cream, exine striate. Smell very unpleasant. INFRUCTESCENCE: Not known.
Amorphophallus gallaensis is a conspicuous species from Kenya and the southern regions of Ethiopia and Somalia. A. gallaensis stands out by its chocolate coloured (purple-brown to reddish-brown) spathe and the similarly coloured appendix
Somalia and Masai region: from Kenya (Massai highland) to southwest Somalia and to southeast Ethiopia
Frequent in dry Bushsavannas, open woodlands, degraded bushlands. Less frequent on rocks (Inselbergs?) and in river source regions (‘Quellgebieten’).
Tubers and leaves are cooked and eaten in Kenya (Dandu) (in sched. J.B. Gillett 12679).