| Field notes | Terrestial herb. Leafy shoots 9-12 cm apart, to 2.9 m long. Base to 7 cm diam., reddish when young. Sheath yellow-green with dark red patches, dark red when young. Ligule to 2.5 cm long, dark purple. Petiole 1.5 cm long, dark purple. Lamina to 75 x 18 cm, dark green, not plicate, narrowly ovate, midrib dark purplish red beneath; margin red +/- undulating; base rounded to cordate. Inflorescence from base to 18 cm long, peduncle subterranean, to 11 cm long. Peduncular bracts 18 cm long orange-brown in centre, dark red towards margin, upper larger and covering most of the spike ( true sterile bracts seems absent as axis is visible below the spike). Spike c. 5 x 6 cm (bracts only). receptacle to 3 cm long. 4 flowers open at a time. Old flowers (assumed from the previous day) curve outwards. Fertile bractspathulate, orange-brown in centre, dark red towards margin. Bracteole pale orange-brown, apex dark red. Ovary white. Calyx very pale pink, apex pink. Corolla tube, lobes and staminal tube pale pink. Labellum mostly white; pale pink towards base and margin; terminal lobe margin recurved, pink. Stamen and stigma pale pink. Theca hairs pale golden. Infrutescence head globose to ovoid, to 13 x 13 cm, with at least 82 fruits per head. receptacle to 6 cm long. Fruits red, finelly spiny, calyx persistent. Taste of centre of leafy shoot base: bitter pine-like. vernacular name: lusung lusung (Makassar Asli language); fuit edible and popular. Material in spirit. DNA sampled. |
This record
Other records of Etlingera flexuosa