Amorphophallus cognac ( Latin Amorphophallus konjac ) is a species of perennial plants of the Amorphophallus genus ( Amorphophallus ) of the Aroid family ( Araceae ).
| Amorphophallus Cognac | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Amorphophallus konjac K.Koch (1858) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
The local names of the plant are: "konnyaku" ( Jap. コ ン ニ ャ ク ), "devil's language" ( English devil's-tongue ), "snake's palm" ( English snake-palm ) and others.
Content
Botanical description
The tuber is brown, slightly glossy, compressed-spherical, about 20 cm tall, about 30 cm in diameter, produces numerous root babies with a swollen apical part, about 50 cm tall and 3 cm in diameter.
Leaves
Single sheet . The basic color of the stem is dirty whitish-pink or dirty cream, the petiole is covered with large, elongated, merging, pale green spots and smaller white dots or numerous small blackish-green spots up to about 100 cm tall and 8 cm in diameter, smooth or with scattered dot warts at the base.
The lamina is multi-dissected, up to about 200 cm in diameter, the central vein is narrow-winged. The leaflets are dark green above, elliptic, 3-10 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, pointed.
From left to right: tuber, petiole, leaf | ||||||||||
Inflorescences and flowers
Inflorescence on a long pedicel (rarely short), colored as a petiole, up to about 110 cm long and 5 cm in diameter.
The veil on the outside at the base is dirty pale brownish with blackish-green dots or dirty pale grayish-whitish with several scattered blackish green dots, at the edges with purple divorces; inside at the base is chestnut with more or less pale whitish-violet zone above (or without it), from oval-lanceolate to wide-oval-triangular, 10-60 cm high, 10-55 cm wide; the base and the plate are more or less separated by small waist; the edges are more or less winding; the top is sharp; the base is densely covered with tiny dot warts; the plate is vertical, monotonously dark violet-brown on the outside or with scattered blackish-green spots; inside it is monochromatic dark brown, glossy, wavy and (or) longitudinally wrinkled (mainly along the edges).
The cob is sedentary, 15-110 cm long, during flowering it emits a strong smell of rotting meat and gives off small, transparent, slightly viscous droplets. Female zone from cylindrical to slightly conical, 2-11 cm tall, 1-4 cm in diameter at the base and about 6 cm in diameter at the top; flowers crowded or spaced; ovary whitish or pale pinkish, purple at the apex, compressed-spherical, oval or semicircular in cross section, 2-2.5 mm high, 2-4 mm in diameter, two- or three-nest; purple column, 1-5 mm long, more or less thin, 0.7-1-1 mm in diameter, often distinctly branched at the apex; stigma dirty yellowish-brown color, compressed, strongly wavy, often located between the branches of a column, two-, three- or four-lobed, oval or triangular in cross section, about 0.5 mm high, 1.5-2 mm in diameter, warty rough. The zone between male and female flowers is sometimes partly with stamino male flowers, or with female flowers, or with flowers of various intermediate forms. The male zone is cylindrical and slightly spindle-shaped or slightly obversely conical, 2-12 cm tall, 1-6 cm in diameter, flowers are crowded; male flowers consist of 3-5 stamens; stamens 2-2.5 mm long; the threads are pale orange-yellow or whitish, 0.5-1 mm long, fused at the base, or completely, or slightly divergent at the top; anthers are off-whitish-greyish or more or less creamy, truncated or half-sectioned, 1–1.5 mm long, 0.8–2 mm wide, rectangular in cross section; Binder purple, becomes grayish during flowering, slightly raised; pores are apical, oval or renal. The appendage is narrowly fusiform-conical, compressed laterally and with irregular, small, longitudinal grooves, 10–85 cm long, 1.5–6 cm in diameter, sharp, slightly violet-brown or paler, densely pubescent, often at the base with several rhomboid smooth staminodes.
Blossoms in April.
From left to right: inflorescence, female flowers, male flowers | ||||||||||
Spread
The natural habitat of the species is East Asia : China (Yunnan Province), Vietnam , Thailand , and the Philippines .
It grows in open spaces, on the outskirts of forests and in forest thickets, in secondary forests, at an altitude of 200 to 3000 m above sea level.
Use
The plant is used as an ornamental, despite the disgusting smell emitted by it during flowering.
It is grown in China , Korea and Japan as a food plant.
From corms get the so-called brandy flour (also called brandy or konjak), used as a food additive (thickener E425 ), of which they get brandy gum and brandy glucomannan , used for the same purposes. These substances are used as gelling along with pectin , agar-agar and gelatin .
Links
- KEW
- Amorphophallus cognac : information on the site "Encyclopedia of indoor plants"
- Amorphophallus cognac : information on the site iplants.ru
- Amorphophallus Cognac : information on the World of Plants website