Aroids (the family Araceae)

[Paul T]

Kees,

Mine of that species is a solid brown.  I guess you found a different colour morph.  I quite like it! 

[Oron Peri]

Here is another picture of the Biarum, showing the flowers. Does this help? I think there are two autumn flowering Biarum's known from Morocco. B. tenuifolium and B. dispar. Not sure if this one fits in any of those two though.

Kees,

That is an excellent and rare color form in Biarum.

It is Biarum dispar, easily recognized by the way the anthers are connected to the spadix, with no interval and the lack of staminoides which are a characteristic of this species.
Biarum tenuifolium ssp. galianii which also can be found in Morocco has a different flower structure from the above.

[Kees Jan]

Many thanks for your help!

[Janis Ruksans]

Many thanks for your help!

I agree with Oron. There is excellent monograph on Biarum's by Peter C. Boyce published in Curtis's Botanical Magazine, vol. 25, 2008.
Janis

[Janis Ruksans]

Can someone to help me to identify this Pinelia got from China?
Janis

[Paul T]

Janis,

If it isn't Pinellia cordata it is something very close to it?  Similar flowers to the cordata I grow here, has a bulbil in the leaf centre, and paler veins.  Not as strong in the leaf contrast as the usual one, although that could be growing conditions I guess, but I would be thinking it is probably that species?

[PDJ]

Just a pictures of my favourite aroid this year.



 Edit by Maggi: I have resized the picture to make it a better "screen fit for most viewers!

[Paul T]

Mine flowered for the first time ever this year.  It is beautifully white, isn't it.  I have lots of photos of it that I took at the time, but haven't processed them to put up on the forums.  It is apparently self fertile as it has set seed from just the one inflorescens.

[PDJ]

Glad to hear yours flowered, mine flowers every year now.  I had mine for a while before I found out that it thrives on being neglected, watered once in a while and not fed.  When I watered it well and fed it all I used to get was lots of leaves but no flowers so be mean to it.

[Janis Ruksans]

Can someone to help me to identify this Pinelia got from China?
Janis

No, it isn't cordata. I think cordata has longer spatha (slender) and it isn't hided below leaves (in my plants grown under name of cordata).
Janis

[Paul T]

Janis,

You're right that the cordata I have here has more slender spathes, but the flowers of mine often sit under the leaves rather than above.  I still wonder whether it is a variety of it, just something different to that which we already have in horticulture.  Certainly the leaves aren't anywhere near as striking as the ones we generally see under the name.

PDJ,

My experiences for the Dracunculus canariensis are the opposite...... I had it neglected in a pot for years and it never flowered, so I repotted and gave it plenty of food and it flowered.  It shows how much the growing conditions and microclimates etc affect so many of our growing experiences.    Of course, now that it has flowered mine may sulk for eternity and I'll never get another one.    Fingers crossed that that is not the case though. 

[ArneM]

Quite a smelly spectacle which caused its own expulsion by my parents: Amorphophallus rivieri

[fleurbleue]

You can pour a spoonful of water into the flower to stop the bad smell  and keep your plant indoors 

[Pascal B]

Quite a smelly spectacle which caused its own expulsion by my parents: Amorphophallus rivieri

Arne, the proper name for that species is Amorphophallus konjac. Amorphophallus konjac was described in 1858 and Amorphophallus rivieri is 1869. Both names represent the same species and therefore the older name, Amorphophallus konjac, has preference. As a result, Amorphophallus rivieri was reduced to a synonym of konjac.

[Pascal B]

Can someone to help me to identify this Pinelia got from China?
Janis

No, it isn't cordata. I think cordata has longer spatha (slender) and it isn't hided below leaves (in my plants grown under name of cordata).
Janis

Janis, the 2 characters you describe seem more horticultural differences, not taxonomic. Given sufficient nitrogen, the leaves of this species can be much bigger and then will hide the flowers with only the spadix tips visible. There is a (polyploid?) clone of Pinellia cordata in cultivation called "Yamazuki" which is bigger in all its parts than the usual plants and given sufficient nitrogen the leaves can be 25 cm long and should be lifted to see the flowers!.

There is still a debate going on whether Pinellia cordata and the plant on your pictures (Chen Yi A-99) are the same. The main differences seem to be a stoloniferous habit of A-99 and the production of both leafbulbils as well as stembulbils. Flower colour generally is less reliable as a character in aroids and particularly in Pinellia as Pinellia triparta and Pinellia ternata occur in green and purple flowered forms. The smell and the basic structure of the flowers (the male and female naughty bits inside the spathe tube) are the same which might indicate the same pollination syndrome and would vote against a separate status. But the less pronounced silvery veins and lack of beetroot undersides of the leaves of A-99 are obvious differences. Whether alle these differences are enough to separate it as an independent species remains to be seen. I had a discussion with the Chinese taxonomist Li Heng about this plant but we could not come to a conclusion.  It does not key out in the upcoming Flora of China as a separate species so I have my own plants labeled as "Pinellia cordat aff." for now but most likely it is a variety of cordata.

PS. One note of warning...... Anyone growing Pinellia cordata that has irregularly, slightly distorted shaped leaves (best described as "bubbly") with light green spots in the leaves, be aware it could be infected with a mosaic virus. Pinellia cordata is not as invasive as Pinellia pedatisecta or P. ternata so got more popular in recent years but I have noticed many plants in cultivation are virus infected. This type of virus can also spread to Arisaema which really can suffer from it. To give an idea, the entire big population of Arisaema candidissimum in the peatbeds of Utrecht Botanic Garden was killed because of mosaic virus..