Mirima NP WA Tacca Maculata 1st report in this area (2)

''Tacca maculata'' is a plant in the

Dioscoreaceae Dioscoreaceae () is a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants, with about 715 known species in nine genera. The best-known member of the family is the yam (some species of '' Dioscorea''). The APG system (1998) and APG II system (2003) both ...

family, native to

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

, the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and

Samoa Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa; sm, Sāmoa, and until 1997 known as Western Samoa, is a Polynesian island country consisting of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu); two smaller, inhabited islands (Manono Island, Manono an ...

It was first described by

Berthold Carl Seemann Berthold Carl Seemann (25 February 1825, in Hanover, Germany – 10 October 1871, in Nicaragua, Central America), was a German botanist. He travelled widely and collected and described plants from the Pacific and South America. In 1844 he trav ...

in 1866.

Description

''Tacca maculata'' has few leaves on petioles up to 1.9 m long, and (usually greater than 1 m long). The leaf lamina start trisected but then become irregularly dissected. The scape of the inflorescence is up to 2 m long. There are three or four involucral bracts and they are lanceolate to ovate. There are 20 to 40 flowers on pedicels which are up to 5 cm long. The sepals and petals are similar, and green on the outside, maroon on the inside. The style is about 2 mm long and has three glandular patches at the base. The fruit is rounded and topped with a persistent perianth.

Habitat

''T. maculata'' usually grows in well-drained lateritic soils.

References

External links

''Tacca maculata'' occurrence data
from the

Australasian Virtual Herbarium The ''Australasian Virtual Herbarium'' (AVH) is an online resource that allows access to plant specimen data held by various Australian and New Zealand herbaria. It is part of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), and was formed by the amalgamat ...

{{taxonbar, from=Q9353987 Tacca maculata Flora of Western Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Fiji Flora of Samoa Taxa named by Berthold Carl Seemann Plants described in 1866