Arisaema sarracenioides E.Barnes & C.E.C.Fisch.

Arisaema sarracenioides E.Barnes & C.E.C.Fisch. View in CoL , Hooker’s Icon. Pl. 34: t. 3307. 1936; Chatterjee, Bull. Bot. Soc. Bengal 8: 135. 1955; Gusman & L.Gusman, Gen. Arisaema , ed. 2. 398. 2006. Type: INDIA , Kerala, Idukki district, Munnar, Naimakad gap, c. 6500 ft, E. Barnes 1092 (K000400314 digital image!) Fig. 24 View Figure 24

Deciduous, dioecious, succulent, perennial herbs, c. 70 cm tall. Subterranean stem a tuberous corm, depressed globose to subglobose, 2.5–4 cm diam., 2–3 cm tall, yellow to greenish yellow inside, offsets often present in mature corms, a few, surrounding the pseudostem. Roots many, from the upper side of the corm. Cataphylls 3, acute or obtuse-orbicular at apex, mucronate; outer 1.5–2.5 cm long, pale to white often blushed with rose; middle c. 7 cm long, pale white-green or brownish, faintly brown mottled; inner 15–16 cm long, enclosing the pseudostem, pale green to greenish brown, with faint or dark rose, purple to brownish mottling. Leaf solitary, radiatisect, usually unfolds completely after the emergence of inflorescence; petiole 40–70 cm long, 0.5–1.3 cm thick, light green to dark brownish green, pale-brown to purplish-brown mottled; leaflets 5–7, petiolulate, elliptic-obovate or oblanceolate, 14–30 cm long, 4–9 cm wide, cuneate at base with a petiolules 1–1.5 cm long, acute-acuminate at apex, margins entire, undulate, serrulate, dark green ventrally, pale dorsally. Pseudostem 17–19 cm long, 1–2 cm wide, wrapped by cataphylls, mottled as in petiole. Inflorescence held below the leaf; peduncle 22–26 cm long, much shorter than petiole, light green, pale to dark brown or purple mottled, always greenish distally, sometimes green all over without any mottling, exserted by 5–9 cm long from the pseudostem. Spathe 18–22 cm long; tube of spathe cylindric below, funnel-shaped towards the mouth, 6–8 cm long, 1.5–3 cm wide, white with longitudinal purple stripes along the veins; margins of the mouth recurved; limb cucullate, with a narrow opening, 6–8 cm long, c. 4 cm wide, white purple stripes, ending in a terminal, ovate, hanging lobe; lobe green outside with purple veins, dull purple or green and purple inside, c. 6.5 cm long, 5–6 cm wide, ending in a short tail. Female spadix sessile, 10.5–11.5 cm long, 0.8–1 cm thick, conical with a narrow fertile region of 2–2.5 cm at the base, followed by few neuters; appendix stipitate, 8–9 cm long, cylindric, exserted from the spathe tube, fusiform with 0.5–0.8 cm thick at base and gradually tapering to a verrucose apex, white or white with purple markings; neuters subulate, few, 0.5–1 cm long, upcurved, white; pistils many, sessile, compactly arranged, globose, green; ovules 3–5, white; stigma papillose, white, sessile-subsessile, often with a dark blue neck. Male spadix sessile, similar to female, slender, 8–10 cm long; fertile region c. 2.5 cm long; male flowers scattered over or crowded at the base and distant above, stipitate, 4–6-androus; anthers sessile, purple, dehisce by an elliptic pore; neuters absent. Fruiting spike cylindric, borne on an erect peduncle; berries globose, compactly arranged, red, 2–4-seeded.

Flowering & fruiting: May–October.

Habitat: In evergreen forests, shola margins, among bushes, in humus rich soil at an elevation above 1500 m, in association with A. attenuatum , A. psittacus and A. leschenaultii .

Distribution: India (southern Western Ghats), endemic.

Notes: This species is close to A. translucens in its cucullate spathe limb from which it can be easily distinguished by the presence of a terminal hanging ovate lobe at the spathe apex.

Specimens examined: INDIA , Kerala, Idukki district, Devikulam, Lockhart gap, 23.05.2011, Manudev & Santhosh Nampy 4433 ( CALI!) ; Eravikulam National Park, Nymakad , 20.07.1997, V. Abdul Jaleel & Bobby Thomas 112 ( CALI!) ; Mathikettan Shola National Park, Chekpost to Onnamthodu , 22.05.2015, Manudev & Syam Radh 138958 ( CALI!) ; Choondal, Mathikettan , 23.04.2016, Syam Radh & Arunkumar 149114, 149115, 149116, 149118, 149119 ( CALI!) ; Sivan Para, on the way to Mathikettan , 26.06.2016, Syam Radh 149160 ( CALI!) .