Sauromatum venosum

Common Name: Indian Voodoo Lily

Family: Araceae

Country of Origin: Trop. Africa to China (Yunnan)

Description: Tuber depressed globose, to ca. 9cm high and ca. 15cm in diam., producing numerous annual offsets, these globose or depressed globose. Petiole yellowish green, with rounded purplish brown spots, 20–100cm; leaf blade 9–11-pedatifid; central lobe oblong or oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, 10–40 × 4–20cm, acuminate; lateral leaflets elliptic, gradually smaller toward distal end of rachis. Inflorescence appearing before leaves; peduncle greenish white, with or without a few brown spots, 3–7cm, sometimes elongating during fruiting. Spathe base outside dull dark violet, inside rich reddish purple, ellipsoid, 5–10 × 2–4cm; limb convolute at base, ca. 10cm, distally outside as base but slightly darker and with a few violet longitudinal stripes, inside background color yellowish, almost entirely covered by numerous orbicular to elliptic, confluent dark purple spots, lanceolate, 30–70 × 8–10cm, apex acuminate. Spadix slightly shorter than or as long as spathe; female zone subcylindric, 2–2.5 × 1–1.5cm; ovary violet or pale purple, obovoid, 2–4-ovuled; sterile zone 8–8.5cm, proximal 2–2.5cm sparsely covered with long staminodes, distally grooved and with a few distant conic projections, proximally whitish, distally pale brownish violet; staminodes yellow, clavate, 4–10mm; male zone 1–2 × 1–1.5cm; stamens yellow; appendix at first erect, finally recurved, pale brown to pale violet or lead-colored, terete, to30 cm, ca. 1cm in diam. at base, obtuse. Fruiting zone globose or subcylindric, naked, to ca. 9cm in diam.; berries crowded, bright purple, cylindric, 5–10 × 2–4mm, angulate, apex truncate. ⁴

USDA Zone: 6a-11

Accession #: 199200245

Accession Date: 1992-12-31

Bloom Status: 🪴 Not Flowering

Location: 3203

Quantity: 3

Source: Unknown

Culture: Winter dormant, flowers typically appearing before foliage although under greenhouse conditions multiple corms in a single pot may grow out of sync with one another.

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Liliopsida

Subclass: monocots

Order: Alismatales

Family: Araceae

SubFamily: Aroideae

Tribe: Areae