From: Steve Marak <samarak at arachne.uark.edu> on 1997.04.16 at 05:22:07(625)
Aroiders,
Dick Mansell and Guanghua Zhu have put a couple of images of an
unidentified Amorphophallus I sent them on the IAS web site in the "ID
Center" section. The direct URL is:
http://www.cas.usf.edu/~mansell/id.html
but of course it can be reached through the IAS home page at:
http://www.mobot.org/IAS/
by selecting ID center also.
This Amorphophallus was one of 4 I purchased several years ago from
Mellinger's here in the US as A. bulbifer. Some of you will recall my
previous postings over the 2 or 3 years I've had these in which I opined
that one of the four in particular was not bulbifer at all - well this is
it, and it's the first inflorescence for it. (The others have all
flowered at least once, some twice, and seem typical bulbifer in
appearance of the inflorescence, leaf, and bulbils on the leaf.)
The two images - Nos. 125 and 125a - were taken the first full day the
inflorescence was open. I did not realize that it would open much further
on the second day, to an almost cobra-like apperance. I am sending Dick a
3rd image to add to the collection. Overall height of the spathe is about
15 cm., width about 10 cm. Total height of the inflorescence from soil is
65 cm. or so. Spathe color is as light as it seems, nearly pure white.
Odor - my plants of bulbifer have little or no odor, but this creature
would be a dung beetle's ultimate fantasy. The whole house reeked, a nasty
surprise for my wife - in deference to her, I had put *all* the A. konjac
outdoors this year, and she was looking forward finally to a spring
without Amorphs. flowering in the house. It shed pollen copiously on the
second day.
The picture quality is so-so - I was using a digital camera loaned to me
for the weekend and had some limitations such as fixed-focus. But the
ability to see an image on the computer monitor 5 minutes after taking the
picture makes up for a lot!
All help appreciated, as always.
Steve
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