You are here
Araceae
Amorphophallus johnsonii N.E.Br.
SUMMARY
Tuber globose when young, otherwise flat globose, 3-10 x 1-4 cm, usually without offsets, rarely with short cylindrical offsets. LEAF up to 1.2 m high, fully developed after flowering. Petiole 20-40 cm long, 1-3 cm in diameter, pale green with dark green spots, smooth. Blade 35-100 cm in diameter; rachis only in higher division order narrowly and broad ellipticaly ('oval') winged; terminal leaflets very broadly elliptic ('breit oval') , 9-12 x 4-4.5 cm, tapering into a short and wide, up to 1 cm long point, dark green, midrib slightly raised and brownish. Cataphylls 2-3, ca. 5 cm, 11cm and 20-25 cm long, 2-6 cm in diameter, elongate to broadly elliptic ('oval'), somewhat transparent, pale green with irregular dark green sprinkling. INFLORESCENCE 40-141 cm high, long or shortly peduncled, appearing before the leaf. Peduncle 5-94 cm long, 1-2 cm in diameter; pale green background with whitish and dark green, irregularly formed spots; stands erect and solitary; the shoot of a leaf, still hidden by the cataphylls, is sometimes recognisable at the base. Spathe 12-21 cm long; arranged into a vase-like tube and an elongate, triangular, open limb by a clear constriction. Tube 5-10 x 4-7 cm, ovoid to conical; outside greenish; inside basally with congested, fleshy, purple to cream, hair-like emergences, these 2-3 mm long and on yellow green to dark green background; emergences extend up, at the most, to the upper end of the staminate zone. Open limb 11-14 cm long, long and acutely triangular; outside in the upper third brown purple, otherwise green or reddish brown; margin undulate, purple. Spadix sessile, 33-47 cm long, usually twice as long as the spathe. Pistillate zone cylindrical, 1.5-2.7 x 1-1.5 cm; depending on the size of the inflorescence, flowers partly congested or flowers distant; tissue compact. Staminate zone conical to club-shaped, 3-4 x 1-2 cm, flowers congested, tissue shredded. Appendix ± club-shaped, 27-40 cm long, 3-5 cm in diameter (basally), basally constricted, the first third wider than the staminate zone, then quickly tapering, red brown, surface weakly rugulose and with basal longitudinal furrows here and there. Staminodes absent; sterile zone between staminate and pistillate zone 0.3-1 cm wide; ratio of pistillate to staminate zone 0.5-0.6 : 1. Pistillate flowers 3-5 mm big, ovary ± globose, 2-3 x 2-3 mm, bi-(tri-)locular, green, ovule-attachment anatropous, placental pubescence present only between micropyle and placenta; stigma sessile, globose from above, arched from the side, wider than the ovary, 2 x 2.5-2.8 mm, deeply bi-(tri-)lobed, stigma lobes acute, conical to triangular, orange yellow. Staminate flowers 1-2 x 1.5 mm long; anthers cubical, bright yellow; filaments not visible or short, 0.2-0.3 mm long; pores apical, globose, one pore per theca; connective channelled. Pollen inaperturate, 48-57 x 40-52 µm, orange to yellow, exine smooth (psilate). INFRUCTESCENCE growing over 1 m high. Infructescence stalk 35-100 cm long, elongates significantly in shortly stalked specimens, light purple to green with dark olive green sprinkling. Infructescence cylindrical, 6-15 x 2-4 cm. Berries globose, 7 x 7 mm, two seeded, orange. Seeds flattened to broadly elliptic ('oval'), 6 x 5 mm, rough to smooth, with minute furrows. Smell of rotten leaf litter or grass.