Jardinerong Sunog (the Burnt Gardener)

A popular subject in horticulture, Alocasia sinuata is a small-growing Philippine endemic with bullate, thickly coriaceous, shiny leaves. The plants start out green then mature into a deeper green with almost metallic gray patina and with dark green sunken veins, resulting in a memorable foliage display of pure bliss. The species was described by Nicholas Edward Brown in 1885 from a cultivated specimen from Kew which was given by William Bull. The original collector of this plant is unknown. In the type sheet, Brown noted that it was collected in the 'Malay Archipelago' which Brown himself corrected to 'Philippines'. A photo of the holotype can be viewed here: http://apps.kew.org/herbcat/getImage.do?imageBarcode=K000291398 What is notable in the type specimen is the very deep sinus with rather distant posterior lobes. However, as noted by George Yao, an ardent student of Araceae in the Philippines, posterior lobing and sinus depth is variable in Alocasia anyway....

A month. That is how long it took before the tiny green nub emerging from the soil line finally became a fully formed inflorescence with spathe open for business. What usually happens with Amorphophallus species with tall peduncles is that you usually won't be able to tell if you will be getting a leaf or a 'flower' until a spathe breaks free from the cataphyll- that's nerd-speak for the leaf-like organ that is wrapped around a developing leaf. Cataphylls rot away as the leaf prepares to unfurl. In the case of this plant, I was finally able to tell that an inflorescence was on the way about two weeks after the plant broke dormancy. But patience comes in the territory of Amorphophallus cultivation. Amorphophallus merrillii was described in 1912 by Kurt Krause from a flowering specimen collected by Elmer Drew Merrill on the island of Cavilli in September 1910; in the protologue, Krause noted: "sehr häufig in Wäldern (very common in forests). Elmer Merrill, i...