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Araceae
Amorphophallus baumannii (Engl.) N.E.Br.
SUMMARY
Tuber flattened globose to globose, 3-15 cm in diameter, the roots arise exclusively from the upper half. LEAF emerge a few days after the inflorescence, 30-120 cm high. Petiole 22-100 cm long, dark green with purple spots. Blade 18-70 cm in diameter; rachis slightly cuneiformly winged (‘leicht keilförmig geflügelt’) from 2nd division order leaflets onwards. Terminal leaflets inversely egg-shaped to elongate egg-shaped, 6-14 x 2-5 cm, shortly attenuate, green blue-green; margin smooth, slightly undulate, rarely toothed. Cataphylls not known. INFLORESCENCE appearing before the leaf, can grow over 1 m tall. Peduncle 25-70(-80) cm long, 0.5-2 cm in diameter, dirty green to purple with whitish brown spots. Spathe 7-20 cm long, arranged into a narrow cylindrical to ovoid (‘oval’) tube and an elongate, triangular, open limb by a slight constriction; constriction not always obvious. Tube 4-8 x 3-5 cm, cylindrical to ovoid (‘oval’); outside green to light-green; inside basally smooth or with few, short, circular papillae and very scattered, tongue like, short emergences, greenish purple, with veins somewhat raised. Open limb erect, 5-12 x 3-7 cm, long attenuate, outside green to pale green, inside greenish white. Spadix subsessile or stipitate for 0.3-1 cm, 13-40 cm long, usually twice as long as the spathe. Pistillate zone ± cylindrical, 0.8-2.5 x 0.4-1 cm, flowers relatively congested, but do not always touch each other, at least 3 flower whorls. Staminate zone obconic, 1-2 x 0.4-1.5 cm, flowers congested. Appendix 11-35 cm long, long conic to slighly club-shaped, acutely attenuate, yellow, yellow-green to greenish, basal quarter buldging (‘bauchig’), basally not or hardly constricted, surface slightly rugulose. Staminodes absent; sterile zone between pistillate and staminate zone absent; ratio of pistillate to staminate zone 0.6-0.7 : 1. Pistillate flowers 3-4 mm long; ovary rotund-ovoid, 2.2-3.5 x 2.3-3 mm, bilocular, cream coloured; stigma sessile, 0.5-1.5 x 1-2 mm, circular from above, arched in lateral view, with 2 rounded-acute humps. Staminate flowers 1-1.5 mm; anthers free, 1 x 1 mm long, elongate-(länglich-)cubical, two forming one flower; filaments free, very short or not visible; thecae semi-circular, one pore visible per theca; pores apical, circular-broadly elliptic (‘oval’); connective slightly channelled. Pollen orange, inaperturate, 45 x 46 cm, striate to psilate. INFRUCTESCENCE appearing with the leaf, peduncle clearly elongating after flowering; infructescence stalk 20-35 cm long; infructescence slightly conical, 8-10 x 3-5 cm. Berries globose, 1 x 1 cm, orange red orange. Smell unknown.