Araceae
Arum

Arum nigrum Schott

First published in Oesterr. Bot. Wochenbl. 7: 212 (1857)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is NW. Balkan Peninsula, N. Greece. It is a tuberous geophyte and grows primarily in the temperate biome.

Descriptions

CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011. araceae.e-monocot.org

Distribution
Croatia (Dalmatia), Bosnia and Hercegovina (Hercegovina), Serbia and Montenegro (Montenegro), Greece (Athos, Jura, Skyros).
Habitat
Garrigue, amongst rocks in soil pockets, rocky hillsides.
Phenology
Flowering March to April.
Diagnostic
Inflorescence borne beneath leaves. Spathe-limb deep purple on both surfaces. Smelling strongly of horse-dung. (similar to Arum orientale and Arum gratum)
General Description
Tuberous herb sprouting in spring from a discoid, vertical tuber 4-6 cm across, 2-2.5 cm thick. Petioles subterete, 11-22.5 cm long, 4-6 mm wide, deep green with slight purple staining basally. Leaf- blade sagittate-hastate to broadly sagitate, apex acute, 9.5-21 cm long, 7.5-18 cm wide, glossy deep green. INFLORESCENCE smelling strongly of horse-dung. Peduncle much shorter than the leaves, terete, 5-9 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, bright mid-green. Spathe 12.5-20.5 cm long; spathe-tube oblong-cylindric, 4-5.5 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, constricted apically, exterior green basally, this colour extending c. ? the way up the mid-vein, otherwise very dark purple, the margins darker still, interior pale green basally, darkening c.½-way up to mid-green stained deep purple; spathe-limb broadly elliptic, 9-14 cm long, 3-8.5 cm wide, somewhat cucullate, minutely acuminate, externally glossy deep purple with greenish mottling towards the apex, interior deep purple. Spadix c. ½ as long as the spathe-limb, 8.5-13 cm in total length; appendix clavate to stoutly-cylindric, long-stipitate , 5.5-9.5 cm long, 5-10 mm wide, sooty-purple , tinged with purple apically. Staminodes in 2 whorls forming a zone 2-4 mm long; bristles subulate, stiff, 5-7 mm long, violet to dark purple; bases bulbifrom, verrucate, purplish yellow. Interstices : upper 2.5-3 mm long, ± smooth, dull yellow; lower 0.5-1 mm long, deeply and regularly longitudinally grooved, dull yellow, stained with purple. Staminate flowers in an oblong zone 8-9 mm long, 7-8 mm wide; anthers and connectives pale purple. Pistillodes in 1 whorl forming a zone 1-1.5 mm long; bristles subulate, stiff, 55-7 mm long, deep violet; bases massively conic, verrucate, dark yellow, stained with purple. Pistillate flowers in a cylindric cluster, 13-15 mm long; ovaries oblong, 2.5-3 mm long, pale yellow, upper ? violet; stigma pale grey-mauve. Fruiting spike oblong-cylindric, 3.5-5 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide; berries pyriform, 3-9 mm long, 3-4 mm wide. Germination epigeal.
[CATE]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: low confidence
[AERP]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • CATE Araceae

    • Haigh, A., Clark, B., Reynolds, L., Mayo, S.J., Croat, T.B., Lay, L., Boyce, P.C., Mora, M., Bogner, J., Sellaro, M., Wong, S.Y., Kostelac, C., Grayum, M.H., Keating, R.C., Ruckert, G., Naylor, M.F. and Hay, A., CATE Araceae, 17 Dec 2011.
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images