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Araceae
Amorphophallus preussii (Engl.) N.E.Br.
SUMMARY
Tuber 3.5-10 x 4-6 cm, flattened globose, with a tendency to [have] a deep depression, outside orange brown to brown, inside yellowish, forming offsets. LEAF solitary, 60-80 cm high. Petiole 35-70 cm long; 0.5-2 cm in diameter; smooth; dark greenish with dark brown to black green, broadly elliptic ('oval') spots, these overlap each other frequently. Blade 40-80 cm in diameter, with 24-40 cm long main segments, which divide again at an interval 4-6 cm from the base; rachis narrowly winged only from 2nd division leaflets onwards. Terminal leaflets elongate to elliptic, lanceolate or inversly egg-shaped; the basal ones somewhat askew; 6-28 x 2-7 cm; attenuaring in a clearly offset 1.5-2.5 cm long point; underside pale green with reddish brown mid-vein and reddish side-veins; upper side dark green; margin smooth to slightly undulate. Basal leaflets broadly elliptic ('oval') and loosely dispersed. Cataphylls unknown. INFLORESCENCE solitary; emerging before the leaf, 20-75 cm high. Peduncle 12-60 cm long, whitish, pale green at the base, with light purple elliptical spots. Spathe 8-15 cm long, erect, arranged without a distinct constriction into a cylindrical tube and a broadly elliptic ('oval') to triangularly attenuating open limb. Tube cylindrical to conical; outside green, purple to whitish, with purple veins and light purple spots; inside greenish, yellowish to whitich; inside basally 1.5-2 cm high, purple red, this region with very short, hair-like emergences or papillae (0.3-0.5 mm long), then greenish, yellowish to whitish, with slightly raised veins. Open limb erect, broadly elliptic ('oval') to triangular, acutely attenuating, green, purple to white with purple veins and light purple spots. Spadix sessile, 6-8 cm long, shorter than the spathe. Pistillate zone cylindrical, 1-1.2 x 1-1.2 cm, flowers incompletly congested. Staminate zone cylindrical, 1.5 x 0.5-1 cm, flowers congested. Appendix cylindrical, erect, 3.5-5 cm long, 1-2 cm in diameter, fatter than the staminate zone; surface slightly rugulose, grainy to rough, pale yellow to brownish, basally constricted, ends in a blunt to rounded tip. Staminodes absent; sterile zone between staminate and pistillate zone absent; ratio of pistillate to staminate zone 0.66-0.8 : 1. Pistillate flowers 2-2.5 x 2-2.8 mm long; ovary spherical to ovoid, 1.5 x 2.3-2.5 cm, (uni-)bilocular, one ovule-attachment per locule, mid-green to pale green; style very short, 0.4-0.8 mm, dark green; stigma button-shaped, broadly elliptic ('oval') form the side, circular from above, unlobed, stigmatic surface papillose, 1-1.2 mm in diameter, pale yellow. Staminate flowers with 3-4 stamens, cream to white; filaments sometimes basally fused into a pillar-like Columna, 0.5-1 x 1-1.7 mm; pores broadly elliptic ('oval') to circular, apical, one pore per thecae. Pollen inaperturate, 41 x 32 µm, ovoid ('oval'), exine finely verrucate. INFRUCTESCENCE 25-40 cm long; infructescence stalk erect, as the peduncle, 10-35 cm long, brownish, smooth; infructescence globose, ovoid ('oval') to cylindrical, 2-5-6 x 2-3.5 cm. Berries globose to coffe bean shaped, 0.5-0.7 x 0.5-1 cm, one to two seeded, orange. Seeds ovoid and somewhat angular, smooth, with microscopic small papillae and longitudinal ribs, 0.5 x 0.3-0.4 cm. Smell unknown.