30
A NEW ARISAEMA OF TAIWAN
T SENG· C HI ENG H UA NG' "
Abstract : O ne ne w taxon , A risaema fo rmosana (Ha yata } Hayat a var .
bicotorif otia var . no v. was described.
On March 26, 1982, I went to T iger Moun ta in. C hi nshui vi llage, M iao li count y for field
collection. Ab ove t he a lti tu de of J 100 m high. I had enjo yed no t only t he landsca pe of the
natu ral broad -leave d fo rest covered by do mina nt trees of Quer cus variab ilis, Prun us c a m pa RUIOI Q.
Ace,. spp. Liquidamha r fo rm osana, Persea japonica , Cinnam om urn ra ndat ensts, Neolitsea nantoensis,
Gordonia onoma!a, Rhododendron spp.• Cyclobalanopsis glauco. Engelhardtia roxburghii, but
a lso my lucky co llection o f un usual Arisae ma plan ts ( PI. I, ) gro wing toget her wit h A risaem a
f ormo sana ( PI. 2.) on the sa me forest Door o f th e sou thern s lo pe at the a lti tude of 1400 m
high which ga ve rise my a ttention as I did twent y-tw o years ago. At tha t time. my atten tio n
wa s paied on t he field ob servation and cult iva tion o f Arisaema pl ants specia lly for its in ter estin g sexua l ch an gemen t on the sa me plant of di ffere n t ages (Hu ang, 1960 ). But this ti me the
colou r ful leaflets made me a big sur pr ise a t a glance, So tha t I coll ected two ma le -plan ts
back (Hua ng 8697, 8698 ). On May 14, 1982, [ wen t to Mt. San ton for field co llection again
in order to add fem ale plants fOT my collection. Fo rt unately, I coll ected both mal e (Huang
8780, 8781, PI. 3, ) and female plan ts (Huang 8781, PI. 5,) a t the sa me place a t the a ltitude
of 1340m h igh. ' I found them al so growing tog et her with A . f orm osa na ( Huang 8783, PI. 4)
on the same fore st floor of the southern slope. Wh at is more, the wh itish area on the uppe r
sur face of leaflets can be observed fro m non- Dower in g immatur e plan ts to old Dow erin g
( Pis. J, 3 ) a nd fruiting plants ( PI. 5 ). T hus it has been pro ved to be one of the constan t
and sta ble fea tures.
In Ch inshu i vi llage , there is a r iver named Bun- sh ui which flows from east to wa rd west
directi on . MI. Tiger situa ted to no rth war d and M1. San tou to so uthwa rd of Riv er Bun-shu].
Mt. T iger j ust op posite to 1\11. San ton and their h ighest peak rea ch to 1492 m hig h and
1439 m high a lti tudes respectively. Since 1 found th is unu sual Arisaem a plan ts at two d ifferen t
mounta ins, I ca n fairl y confir m that t his unusua l Arisaem a pla nt occup ies lar ge enoug h
po pulation to be proposed it as a new tax on. The fo llo wing descript ion was based on my
obser vation of ten plant s on th ree d ifferen t places of the sa me so uthern s lope of both M IS.
T iger an d San to n o n Ma rch 26. 1982 a nd May 14, 1982.
TAO
Arisaema formosan a (Haya ta ) Ha ya ta va r. bicolorifolia Huang var, nov.
Fig. I & Pis. 1- 5.
A varie ta te formo sano foli is bico lor ibus et lati usculi bus differ t .
Her ba succu lem a di oeci a. Pse udoca ulis testaceous ~o ad 100 em al atus. Folia una pa lmatim co mpo sit o he xa- ad deni - folio lis ; foli ola lan ceol a ta 17-37 em longa 4.8-13 cm la ta .
ac uminate, venam latera Ii 10- 26 pa rt e, infra vi r idia, su pra vir idia pa rt e medio excepio.
Planta mascul a : pedieell us 12-1 4 em longus : spat ha In tem a purpurea. externa vitta ta fla vovlrens al ba a lterna libus II em tonga . 3.2-3 .4 cm lat a. apice filifo rmi 12 cm lon gi ; spa dix
5-5.5 em longus, stami ne nu meroso : appendiculat a 2.5 em Iongo 1.5- 2 m m in di arnerro. Po llini s
gra na pa r va uni su tca : e xinium spi nulum. Plant a ferninea ; pedunculus 22 em longus 0.8 ern
latu s ; spadis 5 e m lon gus 2.5 em latus : baceae nu meroso : semen I. raro usq ue 2.
( I)
~ tiJ*,
Professor of Botan y Departmen t, Xurionul Taiwan Luiv crsir y, Taipei 107, Tai \\<I11. ROC.