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Among the representatives of the flora of the tropics and subtropics there are giant and dwarf plants, striking an unusual type of foliage, flowers and stems. The blessed climate of the Southern Hemisphere gave the world the most famous incense and uniquely beautiful flowers. Amorphophallus, as a representative of the aroid family, also does not cease to amaze botanists and ordinary nature lovers.
Places of growth and peculiarities of amorphophallus
Any of 170 species belonging to the genus of amorphophallus deserves a separate story, but most of them still need careful study and description. Today it is well known that many of the representatives of the genus are endemics with clear boundaries of habitat. In nature, they can be found in various parts of the African, Pacific and Asian tropics. The area includes South Africa and Madagascar, the territories of Australia and nearby islands, as well as China, Japan and India, the forests of Nepal and Thailand, Vietnam, large and small archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean. Indochina is considered to be the birthplace of these short-lived, but in their own way amazing plants.
Amorphophalluses are more often seen in the undergrowth or on limestone rock ledges among other grass and shrubs. Above the soil, they form a dense erect stem with a three-pinnate, strongly dissected leaf. The underground part is a massive tuber, the weight of which depends on the species.
Most of the time the plant is at rest, and flowering takes place shortly before the appearance of greenery.
Amorphophallus titanic( Amorphophallus titanum)
Among amorphofallus there are plants of different sizes and shapes, but the most outstanding is titanic amorphofallus. The species was discovered and described by botanist Odoardo Beccari at the end of the 19th century during a trip to the western part of Sumatra.
A species of unknown plant impressed the public. Never before have people been able to observe the flowering of a two-meter inflorescence in the form of a powerful, framed juicy stipile cob. Not only were the sizes striking, the smell coming from the plant had nothing to do with the scent of flowers and was unforgettable.
Today, when scientists were able to carry out a chemical analysis of the “flavor”, it became clear that the natives who called amorphofallus were a cadaver flower were quite right. Among the components of the aromatic composition was:
- dimethyl trisulfide, which determines the smell of some cheeses;
- dimethyl disulfide and trimethylamine present in the smell of rotting fish;
- isovaleric acid, which is worn by sweaty socks;
- benzyl alcohol, which gives the smell of sugary sweetness;
- indole, one of the components of the smell of excrement.
The intensity becomes stronger while the bract is greenish on the outside and purple from the inside. The “aroma” of amorphophallus, as in the photo, serves to attract pollinating insects, so its strength changes during the day, reaching a maximum by the middle of the night.
In 1894, titanic amorphophallus was recognized as a symbol of the Indonesian Botanical Garden. Individual copies went to England and other European countries to study and demonstrate to the public.
But neither the giant inflorescences nor the smell helped to protect this species from almost complete extermination in the wild. Almost all known today "Arum Titanum", as David Attenborough called the plant, are specimens from botanical gardens and greenhouses. These amorphophallus have their own names and constant monitoring of development and flowering.
Thanks to careful control, it was found out that a record tuber weighing 117 kg in 2006 was obtained in Germany, and an ear of 3 meters 10 cm, which was shown at an exhibition in the USA in 2010, hit the Guinness Book of Records.
In addition to the unique cob inflorescence, which is considered to be the largest in the plant world, and the corm, the titanic amorphofallus has:
- rather juicy upright stalk;
- is a single plumose leaf up to a meter in diameter with a variegated hollow petiole up to 3 meters high.
For the first time, the giant plant world blooms 7–10 years after sowing. And the green part of the plant is shown above the ground only after the withering of the inflorescence.
Then, at the base of the ear of amorphofallus, as in the photo, dense oval berries of orange or yellow color are formed. Flowering extremely irregular. In some cases, the inflorescences do not form for 5–8 years, but sometimes nature lovers each year can observe the development of one of the most unusual plants on the planet. 
Amorphophallus Cognac( Amorphophallus konjac)
Another type of amorphophallus comes from Southeast Asia, China and the Korean Peninsula. Amorphophallus cognac or, as the local population calls it, konjac is less titanic, but equally interesting for botanists, and for everyone who is not indifferent to exotic flora.
In addition to the word "koniak", in China, the Philippines or Vietnam, the name "snake palm" or "devil's tongue" can be heard in relation to this species. The superstitious fears of the natives were caused by the form of a large, pointed inflorescence of a burgundy hue, so similar to the language of the devil itself, which appeared from underworld itself. In scientific circles, this type of perennial aroid plant also has a second name - amorphophallus river.
The structure of the plant differs little from the titanic amorphophallus, but the height of the conniac does not exceed two meters from the tuber to the tip of a single leaf or inflorescence.
The tuber of amorphophallus, as in the photo, has an irregularly rounded appearance and can be up to 30 cm in diameter. The image shows the places where the children were formed, which in a few years will have to become full-fledged specimens.
From the rest period, the amorphophallus of the river emerges in early spring and blooms in April. The inflorescence of a conniac is kept on an upright, tinged on the coverlet and a cob of a petiole about a meter long. As it blooms, the smell of rotting flesh spreads around amorphophallus, and sticky droplets form on the cob. In this way, the plant attracts insects that carry pollen from male flowers to female flowers located here.
Despite the unpleasant odor inherent in the mind, an exotic type of culture is grown as a decorative, not only in greenhouses, but also ordinary apartments.
But in the homeland they value not the original beauty of the inflorescences and dull green snake palms, but the possibility of using the tuber of amorphofallus as food. From brownish corms make flour and gelling food additives, the quality is not inferior to agar-agar.
Amorphophallus pionolist( Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)
Amorphallus cognac is not the only ornamental and food plant in the genus. In some provinces of China, in Vietnam and on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, pionoliferous amorphophallus, called elephant yams, grows.
With a general similarity between a tuber and a leaf, the inflorescence and the veil are very different in appearance from the conniac and arum titanum. The purple or violet-greenish blanket on the edge has a pronounced frill, and the upper part of the cob hanging on the shortened petiole resembles a fruit body that has strongly overgrown the stitch.
Tuber of an adult pionolyphorus amorphofallus can weigh up to 15 kg and reach 40 cm in diameter. At home, this species is cultivated as a food, medicinal and forage plant. Eat flour obtained from tubers and corms themselves, which fry and boil like potatoes.
Like the lower part of the bedspread, the leaf stalk is spotted. The leaves of this species really resemble the foliage of a famous garden flower, but unlike it can grow from 50 to 300 cm in diameter.
Amorphophallus bulbifer
All amorpho phalluses owe their smell to the preferences of the insects that pollinate them. As a rule, these are flies and scavengers, attracted by the miasms of rotting flesh. For the same reason, in most species, the veil that protects the inflorescence has a rich burgundy or blood tinge.
However, all rules have exceptions. The lily of voodoo or amorphophallus bulbous growing in the wild nature can be considered the most beautiful, even the most refined of all relatives. He has a pointed white-yellow cob with a clear boundary between female and male flowers and a pink veil on the inside. In shape and elegance, as seen in the photo of amorphofallus, this inflorescence is more reminiscent of calla, moreover, it almost does not have such a disappointing florist of an unpleasant smell.
But the main peculiarity of the species is not in this, but in its ability to form quite viable bulbulas on the branching of the leaf veins. Falling to the ground, after a short period of dormancy, they germinate and give life to new plants along with the children forming on the corms.
Bulphonous amorphophallus in the wild is still found in the forests of India and Myanmar. But the true recognition of the species received in Europe and the United States, where it is considered a great room culture.
The species has a fairly long rest period, from September to February the tuber is in dry soil without watering, and in the spring after transplantation it gives an arrow, on which a white-pink large inflorescence opens.
As in other related species, after pollination on the cob, as in the photo of amorphofallus, oval berries can ripen. Depending on the ripeness of their color varies from green to densely carmine. Before full ripening of berries, the plant has time to give a leaf on a spotted hollow petiole.
Dwarf Amorphophallus( Amorphophallus pygmaeus)
Amorphofallus dwarf or Pygmy from Thailand is of obvious interest to lovers of indoor crops. The plant is not more than half a meter tall and stands out from a number of relatives with completely white elongated inflorescences with a small, also white bract.
This kind of odor characteristic of amorphophallus only comes out on the first night after the emergence of the cob and from spring to autumn makes the owners happy, first with the appearance of inflorescences, then berries that form on the cob, and then with thick green or almost black feathery leaves.
