勐海蘑芋 meng hai mo yu

Amorphophallus bannaensis H. Li.

Tuber brown, depressed globose, 3-5 (or more) cm high, 5-30 cm in diam., developing offsets; offsets incompletely known but probably rhizomatous. Leaf solitary; petiole dirty white with dark green to reddish brown spots, ca. 20 cm (?or longer), glabrous; leaf blade to 100 cm in diam.; leaflets elliptic, 6-9 × 2-3 cm, acute-acuminate. Inflorescence solitary, long pedunculate; cataphylls 9-20 cm; peduncle ivory-white, grayish, or greenish with brown or purple blotches and greenish patches, 24-80 cm, 0.7-1 cm in diam. at base. Spathe shortly convolute at base, outside green or greenish brown with green spots or purplish red stripes and spots, apex purple, concave, 8-29 × 7-14 cm, base inside with scattered, shallow, punctiform warts. Spadix emitting an unpleasant, rancid smell, much shorter than spathe, 6.5-18 cm; stipe 0.2-1 × 0.4-1 cm; flowers unisexual; female zone slightly obconic or cylindric, 1.3-5 × 0.6-1.4 cm, flowers congested, proximal ones often more loosely arranged; ovary dark purple, globose or subpyriform, after anthesis (?fertilization) articulate to style, ca. 2 mm high, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., 1-loculed, with 1 basal, anatropous ovule; style strongly curved, dark purple, 1-2 mm, slender; stigma superficial, semiglobose, triradiate or flattened, subapical, often transversely expanded beyond style and subbilabiate, ca. 0.4 mm high, 0.7-1 mm in diam., verrucate, verrucae sometimes elongate and "catcher"-like; male zone obconic, occasionally fusiform, base often constricted, flowers congested, 2-4 × 1.2-3 cm; male flowers consisting of 3-6 stamens; stamens ca. 3 mm; filaments ca. 2 mm, basal half connate, occasionally entirely connate; anthers white, 1-1.5 × ca. 0.8 mm, apex subtruncate; pores apical to sublateral, marginal, elongate; appendix stipitate, occasionally sessile, dirty white, ovoid or conic, occasionally nearly globose, 5.5-7 × 2-4 cm, often with a few deep, longitudinal grooves or with a few shallow folds, glabrous, base constricted, apex truncate, rounded, or rarely acute; stipe 0.3-1.5 × 0.8-2 cm. Fl. Mar-May.

Dense climax forests, on limestone rocks; 1000-1500 m. S and W Yunnan [Laos, N Myanmar (Kachin State), N Thailand].