Arisaema Martius (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Arisaema Martius

Family: Araceae

Major species and synonyms

• Arisaema concinnum Schott, synonym: A. affine Schott.

• Arisaema speciosum (Wallich) Martius ex Schott, synonym: Arum speciosum Wallich.

Vernacular names

• A. speciosum : Vietnam: thiên nam tinh.

Distribution

Arisaema contains about 150 species, most in north-eastern Asia, a few on African mountains and in temperate North America. In tropical South-East Asia, only a few species occur at higher altitudes. A. concinnum occurs in the temperate Himalayas, from India (Assam) to Burma (Myanmar) and Tibet, whereas A. speciosum is found from India (Assam), Nepal to Bhutan and western China.

Uses

The corms are rich in starch that only can be consumed after the numerous calcium oxalate crystals have been removed by boiling repeatedly. They are only consumed in times of scarcity. Sometimes corms are used as animal feed. No information is available on the edibility of South-East Asian species. Many species are important as ornamentals in the western world.

Observations

Fleshy perennial herbs with subterranean subglobose to globose corms or thickened rhizomes. Leaves usually trifoliolate or pedately pinnatifid with 3-30 leaflets and long petiole. Inflorescence a solitary spadix, long-peduncled; spathe tube-like at base, with upper procurved blade; spadix unisexual or bisexual, usually with a naked appendix. Fruit a few-seeded ovoid berry.

• A. concinnum : up to 75 cm tall; corm globose; leaflets 7-11, oblong to lanceolate, 15-30 cm × 2-5 cm; petiole up to 60 cm long; spathe-blade ending in a very long decurved tail; spadix shorter than spathe, ending in slender appendix, usually unisexual; occurring at 1800-3000 m altitude.

• A. speciosum : up to 1 m tall; thickened rhizome horizontal, cylindrical, 7-9 cm × 2.5-6 cm; leaf only 1, trifoliolate; leaflets ovate to lanceolate, 20-45 cm × 8-12 cm; petiole up to 60 cm long; spathe-blade ending in a long decurved tail; spadix with appendix much longer than spathe, unisexual; occurring at 1900-3500 m altitude.

Arisaema species favour cool shady forest areas. Propagation is from corms or pieces of rhizome. In South-East Asia, the following species are possibly of interest because they have larger corms: A. balansae Engler (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam), A. polyphyllum (Blanco) Merrill (Indonesia-Sulawesi, Philippines) and A. consanguineum Schott (Himalaya, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand).

Selected sources

13, 20, 27, 37, 38, 40, 60, 79, 94.

Authors

L.E. Groen, J.S. Siemonsma & P.C.M. Jansen