''Sauromatum venosum'' (syn. ''Typhonium venosum'')
[''Sauromatum venosum''.]
Plants of the World Online. Kew Science. is a species of plant in the
arum family, Araceae. It is native to Asia and Africa, where it grows in forests and riparian meadows.
[
It is grown as an ]ornamental plant
Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...
.[ Its common names include voodoo lily and monarch of the East
]
Description
This species grows from a tuber
Tubers are a type of enlarged structure used as storage organs for nutrients in some plants. They are used for the plant's perennation (survival of the winter or dry months), to provide energy and nutrients for regrowth during the next growing ...
, producing an inflorescence
An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...
with a yellowish spathe
In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...
covered in large purple spots and a purple spadix. The green leaf appears after the inflorescence develops. It has 9 to 11 leaflets each up to 40 centimeters long borne on a tall petiole. The mature flowers emit an odor described as "putrid" and compared to rotting meat.[ The odor is attractive to insects such as flies, which pollinate the plant.][ Like some other aroids it is a ]thermogenic plant Thermogenic plants have the ability to raise their temperature above that of the surrounding air. Heat is generated in the mitochondria, as a secondary process of cellular respiration called thermogenesis. Alternative oxidase and uncoupling proteins ...
, generating its own heat.
In cultivation
This is a readily cultivated plant, popular as an ornamental. The Missouri Botanical Garden
The Missouri Botanical Garden is a botanical garden located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, Missouri. It is also known informally as Shaw's Garden for founder and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Its herbarium, with more than 6.6 million spe ...
suggests growing it far away from windows and walkways "where the brief but overpowering odor from the spadices will be found objectionable".''Sauromatum venosum''.
Missouri Botanical Garden.
Notes
References
* Hetterscheid, W. & P. C. Boyce. 2000. a reclassification of ''Sauromatum'' Schott and new species of ''Typhonium'' Schott (Araceae). Aroideana 23: 48–55.
* Cusimano, N., M. Barrett, W. L. A. Hetterscheid, and S. S. Renner. 2010. A phylogeny of the Areae implies that ''Typhonium'', ''Sauromatum'', and the Australian species of ''Typhonium'' are distinct clades. Taxon 59(2): 439–447.
*
Aroideae
Thermogenic plants
{{Araceae-stub