Skip to main content

Elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)

Suweg or whitespot giant arum or elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) is a plant species in the Araceae, an annual herb but is considered bi-seasonal because the vegetative and generative phases appear not simultaneously, the leaves grow to produce tubers and flowers emerge from the tubers at the beginning of the rainy season.

A. paeoniifolius has a vegetative phase visible as branched foliage which is often referred to as a false stem or petiole, single cylindrical, large and vertical. The true stem is the tuber which is always below the soil surface.

Dlium Elephant foot yam (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius)


The petiole grows upright up to 1.5 meters high, soft, light green to dark green and has white patches. Smooth surface is not prickly or rough prickly depending on the form. Single stalk into three secondary branches and will branch again as well as a leaf blade.

The leaf blade is attached to the stalk, is green in color, a bone in the middle and slightly curved with many veins to the side forming a bumpy surface and leading to a vein running along the edge. Point pointed and face down.

Stem tubers form tuber shoots from the side and can give rise to leaves so that they sometimes look like clumps. The tuber contains starch which is predominantly a white mannan component, often with a pink or purple tinge.

Elephant foot yam has a generative phase characterized by the appearance of flowers and seeds on the ground, reddish brown and yellow in color. Flowers arise when the energy savings in the form of flour in the tubers are sufficient for flowering. The entire leaf withers to leave a large tuber on which a flower appears.









Flower is compounded in a cob structure that is protected by a shingle. The blossoms are imperfect, gather on the side of the cob with male flowers located distal or higher than the female flowers. The blooms will smell of carrion to attract flies and help pollinate them.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Liliopsida
Order: Alismatales
Family: Araceae
Subfamily: Aroideae
Tribe: Thomsonieae
Genus: Amorphophallus
Species: Amorphophallus paeoniifolius
Form: Amorphophallus paeoniifolius ssp paeoniifolius, Amorphophallus paeoniifolius ssp burik

Popular Posts

Tiang fern (Cyathea contaminans)

Paku tiang or pole fern or tiang fern ( Cyathea contaminans ) is a plant species in Cyatheaceae, has a height of up to 12 m, a single stem and the old part shows traces of leaves, the basal part is thickened by adventitious roots and grows mixed with other species. C. contaminans has stipe for 100 cm long, gloucous, purplish to the base, very thorny, when young has scales on all parts, up to 45x3 mm in size, pale brown, very thin and setiferous. The main rachis is pale, prickly, scaly as a stipe but then glabrescent. Pinnae has the largest size of 60 cm and the lowest decreases with stems up to 10 cm. Pinnules have a size of 150x30 mm or smaller with 1-2 pairs of basal segments more or not at all, the rest of the pine curved almost to the rib. Costules have a size of 4-5 mm. Common veins are 12 pairs. The lamina segment is hard, rough on the bottom and fibrous edges. Sori is exindusiate, near costule and pale paraphrase is no more than sporangia. The scales and hair on the pi...

Wild durian (Cullenia exarillata)

Wild durian ( Cullenia exarillata ) is a species of plant in the Malvaceae, a tall tree with smooth, greyish-white bark, peeling on older trees, a straight trunk, horizontal branches and often with a series of knob-like tubercles for flower and fruit attachment. C. exarillata has young branches and the underside of the leaves is covered with golden brown peltate or shield-like scales. The leaves are single, alternate, glabrous, glossy green on the upper side and covered with silvery or orange peltate scales on the underside. Hermaphroditic flowers are tubular and also covered with golden brown scales, 4-5 cm long and cream or reddish brown in color. Flowers have no petals, formed of tubular bracteoles and tubular calyxes, 5-lobed. Fruit is round, 10-13 cm in diameter, covered with thorns and clustered along the branches. Many seeds, reddish brown, 4-5 cm long and 2-3 cm wide. The seeds are enclosed by a fleshy, whitish aril. The fruit splits open when ripe and dries to release the s...

Sereng (Impatiens platypetala)

Sereng ( Impatiens platypetala ) is a plant species in Balsaminaceae, a perennial shrub, grows with erect stems up to 1 meter in height, brightly colored flowers and leaf shape depending on the subspecies, lives in damp or shady places in forests, waterways, roadsides and abandoned lands. I. platypetala has a tubular stem, reddish green or brownish green or whitish green depending on the subspecies and has clear boundaries like the segments where the petiole grows. Leaves have long and large stalks. Single leaf oval to lanceolate-ovate, 5-12 cm long, dark green, blunt base, pointed tip, serrated edge, a large bone and white in the center with several lateral veins. Flowers grow in the axillary of the leaves on the upper stem, have long stalks and stand. The crown is bright red or whitish red or bright orange with a dark color in the center. An eye grows in the middle with a white and green base. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsid...