Arisaema engleri

[guy gusman]

Dear Arisaemaphiles,

I wish to put forward that:

- A. bockii, whose spathe is unknown, was first described by Engler in
Botanische Jahrbucher 29: 235 in 1900. Obviously the voucher specimen was
collected with a fruiting spike but with some remains of spadix appendage.
"Appendage shorter than the fruit, shortly stipitate, elongate and
clavate(?)" Engler says - the question mark is in the diagnosis. Were there
some doubts? I don't know but, amazingly, in 1910, in Das Pflanzenreich,
the text has been slightly revised, the word stipitate has been dropped,
and a line drawing, made <<under the supervision of Engler>> shows a short,
sessile (=stalkless) appendage, pointed at apex and without neuters. Well
the kind of spadix one founds in A. yunnanense - no neuters, sessile and
pointed at apex - and indeed Engler relates A. bockii to A. yunnanense, A.
saxatile=8A and not to members of PEDATISECTA J. Murata, such as A. sazensoo=,
A. serratum=8A which always have a stipitate spadix appendage. In any event,
I think it is better to discard an ambiguous name such as A. bockii.

-  A. du-bois-reymondiae Engl. CANNOT be a green spathed A. engleri because
neuters (or sterile flowers) are present at the base of the appendage, a
character which separates this plant from section PEDATISECTA and relates
it to section CLAVATA (as revised by J. Murata).

- Up to now, I didn't see any of Chen Yi's plants sent as
du-bois-reymondiae or "sikokianum var." in flower. Some extra weeks are
necessary as they are grown outdoors.

Guy