Amorphophallus characteristics

From: StroWi at t-online.de (StroWi) on 2001.11.13 at 04:20:34(7812) Aroiders, I am interested in Amorphophallus spec. with the combination of the following charateristics: +More 1) high ornamental value (mainly) of the leaf (yes, I know: to ANY aroider EVERY Amorph. has a high ornamental value ;-)) (yes, I know, too, that mainly florescences are of interest to an aroider; but I would like to enjoy the look of the plant in its vegetative phase as well; and aren't some of them rather boring in the vegatative state??? (:o) Lord P., foregive my basphemy against your beloved (plant) children.... ) 2) no or poor offset growth 3) rare or poor or low seeds set O.K., to me A. titanum may meet these points. A. atrovirides seems to have a very nice leaf, but does it grow offsets readily? A. pendulus seems to have a very nice patterning of the leaf, too, at least after the pictures in the species list of aroid.org. Somewhere else I saw a picture of A. pendulus with a pale green leaf. Is there such a variation in the leaf patterning in A. pendulus? It's hard to find pictures of many of the Amorph. spec., so I thought I could get some opinions from you. (And even the pictures I found don't tell about the offsets.....) Looking forward to any comment, Bernhard. Dollbergen, Germany approx. zone 6/7

From: "Wilbert Hetterscheid" hetter at worldonline.nl> on 2001.11.14 at 16:29:04(7818) > Aroiders, > > I am interested in Amorphophallus spec. with the combination > of the following > charateristics: +More > > 1) high ornamental value (mainly) of the leaf > (yes, I know: to ANY aroider EVERY Amorph. has a high > ornamental value ;-)) > (yes, I know, too, that mainly florescences are of interest > to an aroider; but I > would like to enjoy the look of the plant in its vegetative > phase as well; and > aren't some of them rather boring in the vegatative state??? > (:o) Lord P., foregive my basphemy against your beloved > (plant) children.... ) You are (barely) excused........... > 2) no or poor offset growth > > 3) rare or poor or low seeds set > > > O.K., to me A. titanum may meet these points. I find the leaf of titanum rather boring. The real ornamental ones are: - A. bufo (no offsets) - A. manta (no offsets) - A. pendulus (no offsets, no growth either............sob, sob, sob). - A. venustus (no offsets, no plant anaywhere either) - A. atroviridis (no offsets) - A. cruddasianus (no offsets) - A. saururus (divides easily by itself) - A. pygmaeus (divides easily by itself) - A. scutatus (no offsets) - A. dracontioides (offsets) - A. aphyllus (offsets) - A. pusillus (variegated clones) (divides easily by itself) - A. obscurus (variegated clones) (divides easily by itself) - A. napiger (no offsets) - A. laoticus (no offsets) - Pseudodracontium lacourii (variegated clones) (divides easily by itself) - P. harmandii (variegated clones) (divides easily by itself) Then again, beauty is in the eye of the beholder......... > A. atrovirides seems to have a very nice leaf, but does it > grow offsets readily? No, it doesn't. You'd have to break the tuber. It does produce seeds well when you hand pollinate but that goes for all Amorphophallus. Once the pollination was succesful, you'll get a whole load of seeds (except in the dwarf species). Not all pollinations succeed though. > A. pendulus seems to have a very nice patterning of the leaf, > too, at least > after the pictures in the species list of aroid.org. > Somewhere else I saw a > picture of A. pendulus with a pale green leaf. Is there such > a variation in the > leaf patterning in A. pendulus? The variegation may be strong or less so, but also cultivation circumstances greatly influence this character. When pendulus is doing o.k., you have that fine leaf but usually pendulus does NOT do well and you have that pale thing. > > It's hard to find pictures of many of the Amorph. spec., so I > thought I could > get some opinions from you. > (And even the pictures I found don't tell about the offsets.....) I will promise (as I have done to Scott Hyndman a loooong time ago) that I will put all available Amorph pics on the IAS website one of these days. There are hundreds, so you'll have a LOT of fun. Cheerio, Wilbert

From: StroWi at t-online.de (StroWi) on 2001.11.15 at 05:33:44(7820) Wilbert, Thanks a lot for your detailed remarks! Hope you are able to type with a ten finger system, so that answering was not too time consuming.... ;-) (This remark is (of course) not aiming at the number of available fingers... Wilbert Hetterscheid schrieb: +More > ....... > > I will promise (as I have done to Scott Hyndman a loooong time ago) that I > will put all available Amorph pics on the IAS website one of these days. > There are hundreds, so you'll have a LOT of fun. > Looking VERY forward to seeing the pics! Thanks a lot for your efforts in advance!!! Cheers, Bernhard. Dollbergen, Germany aprox. zone 6/7 P.S.: Could you drop a line when some more pics are available?

From: Steve Marak samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 2001.11.18 at 06:49:33(7829) On Mon, 12 Nov 2001, StroWi wrote: > I am interested in Amorphophallus spec. with the combination of the following > charateristics: > > 1) high ornamental value (mainly) of the leaf .. > 2) no or poor offset growth > 3) rare or poor or low seeds set Bernhard, I also look for Amorphs with certain features. I'm usually looking for small ones, preferably with uncomplicated culture, to let me grow more of them in my limited space as simply as possible. I like unusual or especially attractive leaves too, though, so I read your note with interest. I was however curious about the 2) and 3) requirements - you are looking specifically for Amorphophallus which are difficult to propagate? As I am usually anxious to propagate at least a backup plant or two, this was a surprise to me. Is there some advantage that I am failing to see of a difficult-to-propagate Amorphophallus? Steve +More -- Steve Marak -- samarak@arachne.uark.edu

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