Aroids (the family Araceae)

[bulborum]

Oeps  

Arisaema ringens Brown Devil and
Arisaema ringens Green Devil

Little mistake in the picture name
Arisaema ringens Brown Devil
must be Arisaema ringens Black Devil

Roland

[Michael J Campbell]

Arisaema, ID please.

[bulborum]

Do you have a picture from the leaves

[Michael J Campbell]

here is a pic of the leaves.
I have it listed as Formosanum ?

[Pascal B]

Michael, correct ID, it is Arisaema formosanum

[Michael J Campbell]

Thanks.

[bulborum]

Some pictures what I bought as Arisaema barnesii
can somebody confirm this

Roland

Arisaema barnesii aff.
thanks Pascal

[Pascal B]

Roland,

This plant was introduced into cultivation by a nursery from N India who got them from friends in S India. The people from the nursery are friends of mine and because I had been studying S Indian Arisaema in the field for several years they asked me for an ID (so blame me..... ). At that time I concluded it was closest to Arisaema barnesii based on the holotype sheet of this species and additional sheets in Kew and Leiden made Barnes. Unfortunately I can't post pictures of the holotype on this forum due to copyright but I can send you privately if you like.

Because it didn't have the peculiar appendix described for A. barnesii (middle part widened, upper part hooked ending in a smooth little knob) I advised them to market it as "A. barnesii aff.".... However, the trade doesn't like working with "aff." so the name in the trade became A. barnesii. A year after the introduction of this plant I visited the holotype locality of true A. barnesii and found plants that exactly matched the holotype having a different habit and a longer spathe tube with a less pronounced recurved spathe mouth. I also nearby found plants that had traits of related species, the same flowertypes that can be found on additional sheets by Barnes from the same herbarium set. Some S Indian Arisaema are highly endemic (often occuring in a single valley) and easily recognisable, some are more widespread and more difficult to ID. Your barnesii is from the last catagory but I think still matches that name the best, even after having seen many S Indian Arisaema in the field I can't come up with a better name. Not sure if this explanation helps though.....

PS. The synonymisation of A. tylophorum with A. barnesii by Gusman in his book is definitely incorrect, these 2 species bare no resemblance at all in real life.

[bulborum]

Thanks Pascal

I will change it in A. barnesii aff.
Also in my computer
Maybe I get one day a true A. barnesii
I prefer to keep them separate
I try to work with correct labels for my customers
so they can use correct names if they wish

Roland

[TheOnionMan]

Some pictures what I bought as Arisaema barnesii
can somebody confirm this

Roland

A rather handsome Arisaema, neat leaves.  Been enjoying all of the information Pascal, I think this thread would certainly be worthy of that special SRGC classification for it to be observed and preserved as specially important. 

How hardy might this species be if grown outdoors?

[bulborum]

Hello Mark

I don't know
I grow it in a tunnel almost free of frost
as soon as I have a few more I will test it
or maybe Pascal knows

Roland

[Pascal B]

Afraid I am not the right person to ask because I grow 80 % of my collection (>100 species) in pots and overwinter the temperate ones in 3 fridges specially bought for overwintering Arisaema....

But I don't let any of my S Indian species go through a cold-cycle, their trigger to growth usually is the onset of the monsoon, not the rise of temperature so I store them in an unheated room inside during their dormancy period.

Tony Avent says it is hardy at its nursery in North Carolina but I don't know what US zone that would be. To my knowledge only a few S Indian species experience frost of any significance in the wild and that would be Arisaema ghaticum (formerly A. sahyadricum var. ghaticum), Arisaema wightii (the S Indian form of Arisaema jacquemontii) and possibly some murrayi at certain locations. All growing on exposed tops on the mountains in Western Ghats.

But as Tony is eager to test for winter hardiness I am sure he will try more of them in the open. The "barnesii" as grown by Roland is a plant that multiplies fast and I have plenty of offspring so might try some in the garden this year and see if they survive. Attached a picture of some of my plants of it, the tip of the spathe seems rather variable. The whole habit is rather robust with broad, leathery leaves and a height of 50 cm max, this in contrast to "true" barnesii which is more elegant and taller, upto 1 meter.

[Lesley Cox]

I love the first picture of A. galeatum. Very cobra-like, as if just about to strike.

Fred, if you have some species in pots instead of the garden, take them into a warm room for a while. You could them smell them very clearly. I once took a pot with A. sikokianum to a meeting, about 100 miles away, in a warm car. Or that was my intention. Before I'd gone 20 miles I had to take the pot from the car and hide it behind a tree on the side of the road. I collected it on the way home about 7 hours later. Sikokianum had become sick okianum. It smelt disgusting. I'd not smelled it before, in the open.

[Lesley Cox]

Some mature and baby tubers of A. jacquemontii are safely potted (obtained just in April) but two small leaves have already come through, out of season. After a frost on Tuesday night, they are both turned to mush. Hopefully the under cover tubers will be OK but I'm putting them in my tunnel to be on the safe side. Others I grow outside have proved hardy enough.

[Graham Catlow]

Hi
Arisaema elephas.

Graham