About Amorphophallus hirtus N.E.Br.
The tuber of Amorphophallus hirtus N.E.Br. is whitish, turning grayish - brown when exposed. It is globose or depressed globose, 2–9 cm high and 3–15 cm in diameter, weighing up to about 1500 g. Seasonally, it produces numerous thin, rhizomatous offset tubers, which are up to 3 × about 1 cm. There is a single leaf. The petiole is dark green with numerous tiny, blackish - green spots or larger, somewhat diamond - shaped, pale grayish - green spots filled with numerous dark - green, elongate dots. It is 20–100 cm long, 1–2.6 cm in diameter at the base, turgid, and glabrous. The leaf blade is 30–120 cm in diameter and highly dissected. The rachises are winged only in the distal half of the blade, with sinuous wings. The leaflets are dark emerald green on the adaxial side with a pinkish - violet margin, somewhat obovate or elliptic - oval, 5.5–11 × 2.5–4.5 cm, somewhat fleshy, and long - acuminate. The venation is impressed on the adaxial side. The inflorescence is solitary and long - pedunculate. The peduncle has the same color as the petiole, 38–125 cm long and 1–4 cm in diameter at the base. The spathe is strongly convolute at the base. Outside, it is pale green, faintly flushed with purple or dark grayish - green with numerous pale whitish - green spots (proximal ones confluent), and the veins are dark green. Inside, it is blackish maroon, campanulate, constricted between the base and the limb, broadly triangular, 13–53 × 12–45 cm, covered with numerous shortly ridgelike, laterally compressed, fleshy warts. The base is obliquely urceolate, thick - walled, and the apex is acute. The limb spreads horizontally or turns obliquely upward. Outside, it is pale green, flushed with purple - brown or dark grayish - green with angulate, whitish - green spots and dirty - purple margins without spots. Inside, it is somewhat maroon, flushed with green or with numerous small, rounded, sometimes confluent, whitish - greenish spots, and the veins are maroon, with an undulate margin. The spadix emits a strong smell of old socks or strong compost. It is somewhat stipitate, much longer than the spathe, 31–88.5 cm long, with a stipe of 0.2–1 cm. The female and male zones are separated by a narrow sterile zone. The female zone is slightly obconic or cylindric, 1.6–6.5 cm long, 1.1–3.5 cm in diameter at the base and 1.2–3.7 cm in diameter at the apex, with lax flowers. The ovary has a white basal half and a blackish - maroon apical half, is somewhat globose, about 2.5 mm high and about 2.5 mm in diameter, orbicular in cross - section, and tapers gradually to the style. It is 2 - loculed, with 1 basal ovule per locule. The style is maroon, thick, about 1 × 1.5 mm. The stigma is somewhat pyramidal, orbicular in cross - section, about 1.8 mm high and about 2.5 mm in diameter, shallowly 2(or 3) - lobed, with pale olive - green, rounded, scabrous lobes. The sterile flowers between the male and female zones consist of 1–7 staminodes, which have a swollen, often depressed, white base and a purple hair 5–10 mm long. The male zone is urceolate, terete or slightly laterally compressed, with a straight or very irregular distal margin, 3–9 cm long, 0.9–3.7 cm in diameter at the base and 2–7 cm in diameter at the apex, with congested flowers and scattered purple hairs between. The male flowers consist of 3–6 stamens. The stamens are very shallowly hemispheric, about 2 mm. Some uppermost stamens are intermediate with hairs on the appendix, with a short hair on the connective or reduced to a slightly concave, broad base with a hair (staminode). The filaments are short, about 0.5 mm, and connate. The anthers are about 1.5 × 3–3.5 mm, polygonal in cross - section, with a very shallowly rounded apex, ivory - white, and produce a clear fluid from the top during female anthesis. The connective is brownish. The pores are apical, elongate, and oval after anthesis. The appendix is very narrowly conic, 25.5–73 cm long, 2–7 cm in diameter at the base, entirely purple or with numerous dirty greenish, small spots, with numerous laxly disposed hairs directed perpendicular to the appendix axis, 0.2–1.5 cm long, purple, in shallow pockets, with an unswollen base and an obtuse apex, and it produces a clear fluid during female anthesis.
