Re: Arisarum proboscideum

From: Don Burns <burns at mobot.org> on 1997.08.09 at 20:54:55(1029) > Several years ago,from a seedling sale, I received a small plant of this that > has yet to bloom for me. This year it has put on much new growth (I fed it) > and has formed "bulbils" at the axis where the leaves join the stem. Does > this sound like the above named plant and how do I handle the "bulbils"? I > would like to pot some up for next weeks seedling sale. Any help would be > much appreciated. +More > Mark Mazer Gaylordsville CT Zone 5 Mark, There has been no comment on your question yet so I am tempted to throw in mine with a qualifier. I know nothing about A. proboscideum but what I have read, and have never seen the little plant. In all that I have read there has been nothing mentioned about bulbil production. Much is mentioned, however, about the curious infloresence that has a long tail resembling that of a mouse, thus the common name "mouse plant". But then you have yet to see an infloresence. Your description leads me to believe that this plant has a single "stem" (petiole) with multiple leaflets growing at the end of that stem, with the bulbil growing at the axis point where each leaflet comes together. You mentioned bulbils (plural). Are they all growing at the same point, or are they at the intersections of other leaflets? >From the few photos of A. proboscideum that I have, it appears that the plant bears multiple leaves, each on its own petiole and each growing directly from the tuber. But your brief description of a single stem (petiole) with multiple leaflets sounds more like Amorphophallus bulbifer or muelleri, both of which produce bulbils. Now that I have stumbled around guessing, is there an expert opinion in the house? Don Don Burns Plantation, FL USA Zone 10b

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