FLOWERING OCTOBER-NOVEMBER  in COOKTOWN BOTANIC GARDENS

Amorphophallus paeoniifolius, the Cheeky Yam, Elephant foot yam or Stink lily.

Developing flower of Amorphophallus paenifolius

This is an Aroid or Arum Lily, a tropical tuber crop that offers excellent scope for adoption in the tropical countries as a cash crop due to its production potential and popularity as a vegetable in various delicious cuisines.

This plant produces a single inflorescence followed by a solitary leaf. The plant is deciduous, dying back to a large underground corm, weighing up to 8kg, after the growing season.

Some people regard the inflorescence as bizarre. It comprises a large spadix crowned with a bulbous purple knob, encircled by a fleshy purple and green-blotched spathe up to 50cm wide. On successful pollination of the female flowers the spadix can extend to 2m tall. The fresh inflorescence emits an odour reminiscent of rotting flesh to attract pollinating carrion flies and beetles.

The solitary leaf resembles a small tree. The leaf blade is much divided into hundreds of leaflets and can reach over 1m wide. This blade sits atop a thick fleshy stem up to 13cm diameter and 2m tall. The pustular surface of the stem is attractively blotched with paler shades of green.

Quite hardy in tropical areas when planted in rich, well-drained soil in a sheltered, humid position. In temperate areas the plant can be grown successfully as a container specimen.

The corm needs to be planted well below the soil surface to give the plant stability. Ample water is required during the growing season but the amount can be reduced dramatically during dormancy. Corms of potted specimens can be removed from the pot and stored dry to prevent frost damage. The occasional application of a high phosphorus fertilizer (NPK 15,30,15) will ensure maximum growth and health of the plant.

We have another common local species, the Sweet Snakeskin Lily (Amorphophallus galbra)  with minute yellow flowers on the spike surrounded by  large green, brown or pink mottled spathe. This is followed by a cluster of bright red berries on the herbaceous fleshy stem more than 300mm high.

And we have a few other species in our Aroid Garden (under development). 

The Titan Arum (Amorphophallus titanum) is the largest of the Arum Lilies, with a huge inflorescence on a stem up to 3m or 9 foot tall, The Tallest inflorescence (flowering stalk) in the plant world. There is one of these in Cairns Botanic Gardens and in Kew Gardens in England. We have a new bulb developing in Cooktown Botanic Gardens.

ARUM LILLIES,  Amorphophallus species

A group of very strange plants that grow from a tuber underground and are only appear in late Spring in Cooktown Botanic Gardens.  There are 180 different species of Amorphophallus (amorphous = shapeless, phallus= penis), the Arum Lilies, If you are familiar with the Anthurium Lily, it is an Aroid as well. Typical of the Arum Lily family, these develop an inflorescence consisting of a spathe (a sheathing bract) which usually envelops the spadix (a flower spike with a fleshy axis) of different colors.  On the inside, they contain ridges or warts, functioning as insect traps and they can emits a scent of decaying flesh, in order to attract insects to ingenious insect traps. Pollinating insects are kept inside the spathe to deposit pollen on the female flowers, these stay receptive for only one day, while the male flowers are still closed. These open the next day, but by then female flowers are no longer receptive and so self pollination is avoided. The male flowers shower the trapped insects with pollen. Once the insects escape, they can then pollinate another flower.  The pollinated flowers then develop a globose berry as a fruit. These can be red, orange-red, white, white-and-yellow, or blue.

Amorphophallus species are used as food plants by the larvae of some butterflies and moths.