A. verrucosum, A. utile, A. griffithii, & vars.

[George R Stilwell, Jr.]

I've revised the AEG species list according to Guy's analysis:

A. griffithii v. verrucosum = A. griffithii

A. verricosum v. utile = A. utile

A. utile is raised to valid status.

Ray
<GRSJr at Juno.com>
--------- Begin forwarded message ----------
From: guy gusman <ggusman at ULB.AC.BE>
To: ARISAEMA-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL
Subject: Arisaema verrucosum
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 1999 08:17:53 +0100
Message-ID: <v01520d02b2e8346d6a41@[164.15.129.88]>

Ray, Roy, All,

I have been quite busy with students from a few days and could not take
part in your discussion about A. verrucosum more promptly.

In Sikkim, for instance, one finds plenty of A. griffithii. If for some
of
them, petioles and peduncle are smooth, for others they are warty. One
easily notices the rough surface, like sandpaper, with the hand. But all
of
them are growing side by side and one goes in a continuous way from
smooth
stalks to verrucose ones. In the same way, the colour also varies from
plain green to purple. The same happens with A. utile. And this is
perhaps
at the origin of the confusion.

Of course, if tubers are collected and sold selectively, one could get
the
impression, in cultivation, that there are typical "smooth" A.
griffithiii
on one hand and "warty" A. griffithii var. verrucosum on the other hand.
In
the wild, however, both grow mixed. In fact, the colour and the warty
aspect of petioles and peduncles only have a horticultural interest but
no
botanical meaning. These are but normal variations of A. griffithii.
A. utile is a completely different species that also present the same
kind
of variation; smooth or warty stalks.
Both species are clearly distinct as it appears from the nice
illustrations
in J.D. Hooker's papers both published in 1880 in the Botanical Magazine
of
A. utile, t. 6474 and A. griffithii, t. 6491.

One could go further. A. elephas also exists in two versions! But,
fortunately, something like "A. elephas var. verrucosum" has never been
used.

Let us thus discard the name Arisaema verrucosum that is irrelevant.

Arisaema griffithii var. verrucosum (Schott) Hara in Univ. Mus. Univ.
Tokyo. 2: 340 (1971) = A. griffithii

Arisaema verrucosum var. utile (Hooker ex Schott) U.C. Pradhan in
Himalayan
Cobra-Lilies, p. 56 (1990) = A. utile (which is often sold in the trade
under the name of A. verrucosum).

Guy (Belgium, zone 8)

--------- End forwarded message ----------

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