|
|
Arisaema echinatum
|
|
|
|
Family:
ARACEAE
|
|
Citation: Arisaema echinatum (Wall.) Schott in Schott & Endl., Melet. Bot. 11: 17. 1832; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 6: 506. 1893; Sasikala et al., Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 98: 495. 2001.
Arum echinatum Wall., Pl. Asiat. Rar. 2: 30, t. 136. 1831.
|
|
Malayalam Name(s):
|
|
Tamil name(s):
|
|
English name(s):
|
|
Description:
Dioecious, rarely monoecious, cormous herbs; corm 2-5 cm across, depressed-subglobose. Cataphylls 1-2, 2.5-2.2 cm long, obtuse, membranous. Leaf solitary; petiole 12.5-46 cm long, cylindric, pale green, streaked with reddish-brown, glaucous; leaflets 6-11, radiate, subsessile, 4.5-30 x 0.7-4 cm, oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, attenualte or subacute at the base, undulate along the margins, caudate-acuminate at the apex, deep green above, pale green with streaks and glaucous beneath; midnerve broad at the base, narrowing towards the tip; lateral nerves slender, 10-14 on each side, obliquely ascending from midnerve, continous to form intra-marginal nerves. Peduncle solitary, 7- 35 cm long, green, streaked with reddish-brown, enclosed by the petiole and then exserted. Spathe 9.5-27 cm long, green, striped with white, brown or purple inside, dull white outside, glabrous; tube 3-6 x 1.5-2 cm, cylindric, convolute, green-and-white striped outside, dark purple striped inside, spreading at the mouth; limb 3-7 x 2.5-5 cm, ovate-lanceolate, vaulted, abruptly tapering into a long slender pendulous 5-15 cm long tail. Spadix included, cylindric, erect, hardly exserted beyond the mouth of the tube. Pistillate spadix 4-7.5 cm long; pistillate flower-portion 0.7- 1.5 cm long, dense with a few sterile flowers above (or none) along with a few staminate flowers; pistillate flowers many, 1.5-2 x 1.7-1.8 mm; ovary 1.5-1.7 x 1.5-1.8 mm, subglobose, green, streaked; ovules 2-3, basal; style minute; stigma discoid, white, viscid. Sterile flower-portion ca 1 cm long; sterile flowers 1-3.5 mm long, subulate, bifurcate, purple at the apex. Staminate spadix 4-6.5 cm long; staminate flower- portion 1.5-2 cm long; staminate flowers many, sparse; filament 0.1-0.5 mm long; anthers 1-5, 2-lobed, purplish brown, dehiscing by a pore; lobes 0.4-0.7 x 0.5-0.9 mm, globose or depressed-subglobose; connective beaked. Appendix 2.5-4.5 x 0.5-0.9 cm, cylindric or slightly compressed, light green, streaked with purple, swollen at the base, contracted in the middle, rugose or echinate with white bristles, 0.07-0.2 cm long, round margins crenate at the apex. Appendix of staminate spadix distinctly stipitate stipe ca 0.5 cm long. Berries ca 0.6 cm long.
|
|
Habit:
Herb
|
|
Flowering & Fruiting:
February-July
|
|
District(s):
Palakkad
|
|
Medicinal:
|
|
Habitat:
Evergreen forests
|
|
Distribution:
Himalayas, India and China
|
|
Aquatic:
No
|
|
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
|
Saprophyte:
No
|
|
Stem parasite:
No
|
|
Root parasite:
No
|
|
Flower colour(s):
|
|
Weed:
No
|
|
Monocot/Dicot:
Monocotyledonous Plants
|
|
Exotic:
No
|
|
Garden:
No
|
|
Edible:
No
|
|
Vegetable:
No
|
|
Endemic to:
|
|
IUCN status:
|
|
Altitude:
|
|
Localities:
|
|