A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Amorphophallus sp.
Spotted on the way to Roc Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan. Genus translates to "mis-shaped penis"
Wiki - The inflorescence, in many species, emits a scent of decaying flesh, in order to attract insects, though a number of species give off a pleasant odor. Through a number of ingenious insect traps, pollinating insects are kept inside the spathe to deposit pollen on the female flowers, which stay receptive for only one day, while the male flowers are still closed. These open the next day, but by then the 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.
Photo by Nida dela Cruz.
Spotted on Apr 18, 2011
Submitted on Apr 18, 2012
11 Comments
OOO, caving in the Philippines? Who'd wanna do that (joke)?
I look forward to your cave shots!!!
hmmm... my guess is the berries ripens from the top of the spadix (red) to the bottom (green)?
Hopefully you're lucky enough to catch one in bloom one of these days! Yes, just below the berries is the scar of the spathe.
I spent 4 months in the Philippines back in 2004/05. I did a lot of caving there. I'm going to dig through my photos and see if I can add some spottings to your mission there.
Yep, I keep seeing these in leaf during hikes to the caves. Now I need to stop a take some photos and if I'm lucky, stop and smell the "roses" :-O
So, what we're seeing just below the berries is the scar of the spathe ...
It is a fascinating genus. Side story - I work outside as a gardener but the same company I work for also has a greenhouse, which I get to work in sometimes, but I'm always in there checking out stuff on my own time. I'm really excited because they just acquired 6 corms of Amorphophallus titanum, the tallest flower in the world. Two of the corms are flowering size and they are going to bloom in the next few weeks. I'm so excited to see them. I've only seen them in their vegetative state or in fruit in the wild, never in flower. They are growing so fast too! Over 3.5" a day now!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphophal...
Agreed Dan, I'll go with Amorphophallus sp. for now, anyway corrections are just an edit away.
Interesting translation of the genus name: Wiki - from Ancient Greek amorphos, "without form, misshapen" + phallos, "penis", referring to the shape of the prominent spadix
I think it's safe to ID it as the fruit of a species of Amorphophallus. What do you think?
Found 2 more similar spottings in PN: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/625... & http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/693...
Dan, I'll ask the original spotter if she has more photos. As I recall spotting, http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/103..., was about knee high... if they are the same?
Looks like the fruit of a species of Amorphophallus. Was it tall? Do you have any more photos of it?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naseer_omme...
Fabaceae family shrub plant.