Monday, August 15, 2011

The Big One, the White One, the Stinky One

Amorphophallus XL
Anthony's Amorphophallus
Quick Post: Amorphophallus seems to be claiming a lot of superlatives in terms of descriptions. Apart from being one of the largest inflorescence and the stinkiest flower, I think it attempts to claim the title - the largest aroid - from its cousins Alocasia, Cyrtosperma and Colocasia.

Yesterday at the Sidcor Sunday market we chanced upon a very large specimen of pungapung or Amorphophallus paenifolius being sold at one of the stalls.  Even giant-fern-and-aroid addict and PNPCSI president Anthony Arbias could not contain himself to have a picture beside this humongous representative of one of his beloved genera. He served as scale indicator to show how big this pungapung is. I wonder how big the flower of this specimen would reach, and how intense its smell would be!.
Giant aroid and the giant-fern enthusiast
Variegated pungapung
Another wonder is this small specimen with variegation we saw in an enthusiast's collection.  Amorphophallus is not the most attractive (certainly not the most fragrant, hehehe) but a variegated specimen would definitely be also one for the books. A real plant oddity with the rare mutation is certainly a treasure, probably one of the most sought after for plant lovers!


6 comments:

Andrea said...

That is a tall one for pungapong, but for the shorter one, we have a lot in our property in the province. In fact i posted a flower at the start of the rainy season. I thought there is another one which is the tallest flower, i forgot the name, is it Titan arum?

You were asking me why very few are commenting here? Have you seen my many comments in my posts? Just return them and they will come again! But in my case i come again even if you dont visit mine, LOL.

metscaper said...

I visit yours. Just also do not leave comments. Sorry, because most of my blogging time is just stolen in between work. Maybe now that I have no 8 to 5 i could catch up on reading the other blogs. If only i could finish grading my student's plates. hehehe.

Marichu said...

Hi, Sir. Pungapong is "tige" for locals of Santiago City, Isabela like myself. They grow in abundance during wet months. We usually gather the young plants, cut the leaves, strip them off their skins (the human skin becomes itchy when rubbed against the "tige's," so my lola says), then chop the flesh into cubes for cooking in a bagoong broth. "Tige" is sticky and is very much like saluyot when cooked.

metscaper said...

Wow. Thanks for the info on tige. Any other recipe?

Marichu said...

We usually cook the "tige" that way, Sir. I have yet to ask my lola if she knows other recipes. Btw, these plants are gathered in vacant lots, farms, and riverbanks free of charge. I'm wondering if collectors would want to scourge the Isabela countryside for such, haha.

metscaper said...

Let us not inform them. hehehe. So the tige will not be overharvested by poachers.