Re: Dracontium ID

From: "Julius Boos" ju-bo at email.msn.com> on 2001.07.28 at 00:43:49(7169) Dear Albert, Now that I am over my virus cleansing, I have had a moment to have a CLOSE look at your photos, and I do believe that your plant is a Pycnospatha. The leaves (especially the small one to the left!) and the petioles shown in the photo #1 are Pycnospatha, certainly NOT Dracontium, as is the spadix shown in Photo # 2 which lacks the scale-like structures that surround each individual flower on the spadix as one would see in Dracontium. It is a wonderful and rare plant, so enjoy! Sincerely, Julius +More . >>Hello Folks, I would like to thank everyone who answered my question concerning the identification of my plant, formerly labeled D. gigas. It would appear that I have been given 3 diagnoses: D. prancei ( the current favorite ), D. polyphyllum, and Pycnospatha arietina. Looking at the pictures that our esteemed friend G. Zhu has on the aroid.org webpage, there is certainly a resemblance to D. prancei more than D. polyphyllum, but I would like to revisit Denis' diagnosis of a possible match with P. arietina. In particular, the reason for my concern is that the shape of the spathe of my plant doesn't quite seem to match either of the suggested Dracontiums. The tip of the spathe is definitely curved over until it points almost towards the ground, which is not the case with the suggested dracontium pictures. I have been unable to find a lot of references to Pycnospatha, but looking at the drawings and description in _Genera_of_Araceae_, it looks like it might be a good match. Does anyone know of a simple diagnostic difference between Dracontium and Pycnospatha other than locality? Thanks, --Albert ===== Albert Huntington San Jose, CA U.S.A. Visit my greenhouse at: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/1436 ----------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/

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