4. Amorphophallus dunnii Tutcher, J. Bot. 49: 273. 1911.
南蛇棒 nan she bang
Amorphophallus mellii Engler; A. odoratus Hetterscheid & H. Li.
Tuber dark brown, subglobose or depressed globose, to 10 cm high, to 12 cm in diam., developing numerous offsets annually, these shortly narrowly fusiform, 1-3 × ca. 1 cm. Leaf solitary; petiole green or grayish green with numerous elongate, confluent, pale green or brownish green spots, 30-60 × 1-1.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade to ca. 100 cm in diam., rachises winged throughout; leaflets dark green adaxially, elliptic-lanceolate, 3-21 × 1.5-7 cm, acuminate. Inflorescence solitary, long pedunculate, producing a scent of fresh carrots; peduncle colored as petiole, 20-60 cm, 0.7-1.8 cm in diam. at base. Spathe shortly convolute at base, outside bright pale green, basally with rounded white spots, these distally grading to whitish green, inside base or a larger patch reddish purple, remainder and limb as outside but paler, broadly ovate, strongly concave, 8.5-24 × 8.5-23 cm, base within ridged-verruculose, apex acute, overarching spadix. Spadix stipitate or rarely nearly sessile, slightly shorter than spathe, 8-20 cm; stipe colored as peduncle but much paler, 0.5-1.5 cm; female zone cylindric, distal part occasionally broadened, 0.5-2.5 × 1-2.2 cm, flowers congested; ovary pale green, depressed, angulate in cross section, 1-1.5 mm high, 2-3 mm in diam., 2- or 3-loculed, with 1 basal ovule per locule; style pale green, 0.5-1 × 0.8-1 mm; stigma yellowish, flattened, ca. 1 mm high, ca. 2 mm in diam., 2- or 3(or 4)-lobed, oval or triangular in cross section, scabrous-verrucate, lobes obtuse; male zone broadly fusiform, 1.8-3 × 1.3-3.5 cm, flowers congested; male flowers consisting of 4 or 5 stamens; stamens ca. 3 mm; filaments ca. 1.5 mm, basal 1/3 connate; anthers butterfly-shaped in cross section, ca. 1.5 × 1.5-1.8 mm; pores elongate, apical but near margin, sometimes connected by an eccentric groove; pollen striate; appendix ivory-white, narrowly to broadly conic, usually slightly dorsiventrally compressed, occasionally substipitate, variable, hollow, 3-14 cm, 1.3-4.5 cm in diam. near base, glabrous or entirely echinate or verruculose, or only distal 1/3 so, base constricted and sometimes grooved, apex subacute or obtuse. Infructescence: fruiting zone cylindric, ca. 12 × 5 cm. Berries crowded, shortly stalked, glossy dark blue, elongate, to ca. 1.8 × 1.5 cm.
● Guangdong, Guangxi.
H. Li (in FRPS 13(2): 92-95. 1979) treated Amorphophallus dunnii and A. mellii separately, but the descriptions indicate to Hetterscheid that they represent one variable species. The placement of A. mellii as well as A. odoratus in the synonymy of A. dunnii was explained by Hetterscheid (Blumea 46: 281. 2000).