Cara De Caballo

Aglaonema pictum

Aglaonema pictum (Roxburgh) Kunth, 1841, p. 55.

Calla picta Roxburgh, 1832, p. 516 [1814, p. 65, nomennudum].

Aglaonema gracile Schott, 1864, p. 279.

A. versicolor Hort. Bull [sic], 1893 (Apr. 8), p. 414.

A. pictum var. tricolor N. E. Brown ex Engler, 1915, p. 33.

Stems erect, 30–50 cm tall, 0.3–2.0 cm thick. Internodes 0.5–5.0 cm long, longest near the base of the plant. Petiole (2.1) 3–7 (14) cm long, 0.3–0.4 (0.6) times as long as the leaf-blade. Sheaths broad, hyaline to scarious, often slightly prolonged, 1.5–5.0 (13) cm long, (0.25) 0.5–0.8 (1.0) times as long as the petiole. Leaf-blades dull above, frequently with a crispulate margin, narrowly elliptic to elliptic or ovate, rarely lanceolate, (5.7) 10–16 (20) cm long, (2.7) 3.5–6.0 (9.5) cm wide, length/width ratio of 1:(1.6) 2.3–3.0(4.0); base often unequal, obtuse to rounded, rarely truncate; apex often apiculate, acuminate; variegated or not with irregular light green to silvery irregular maculations on a dark green background; venation strongly differentiated into 4–8 (10) primary lateral veins diverging from the midrib at (30°) 40°–55°. Peduncles 1–4 together, 3–6 (15) cm long. Spathe light green to yellowish, globose, abruptly apiculate, 1.5–3.0(5) cm long, 7 cm wide, decurrentfor 0.2 cm (rarely 0.5–1.0 cm). Stipe 0.3–1.2 cm long, elongating in anthesis and fruit. Spadix clavate, exserted from spathe for 0.5 cm in anthesis, 1.4–3.0 cm long; pistillate portion 0.2–0.5 cm long, pistils 12–26 (15 and 26 on Nicolson 676), stigmas broad as ovary; staminate portion 1–2 (2.5) cm long, lower half often sterile, 0.3–0.5 cm thick at base, 0.7–0.8 cm thick at middle or slightly above middle. Fruits becoming red, 1–1.5 cm long, 0.5–1.0 cm thick.

TYPIFICATION.—The type is Roxburgh’s drawing No. 1662 (K). This drawing was published by Wight (1844, vol. 3, pl. 804). The typification of this epithet was discussed by Sealy (1957).

DISTRIBUTION.—Sumatra and Nias Island (Figure 7).

HABITAT.—Usually reported between 1000 and 2000 m on the slopes of major volcanos. Occasionally collected as low as 35 m (Jacobson 127 from Padang).

FLOWERING TIME.—April or August. Most fruiting material was collected in March. Seasonality is weak and probably variable according to the exposure of the mountain side.

The type of Aglaonema gracile is: Sumatra? [Korthals] (holotype: L). The origin of this specimen has long been in doubt because the original label was lost. In the original publication Schott stated: “Borneo, Sumatra vel Java (Sched. deperd.).” The type is presently annotated as being from “Java.” Schott had a drawing (Aroideae Nr. 45) labelled “Borneo?” that was prepared from the type. I have annotated the type as probably being from Sumatra, the only island of the three cited in the original publication in which A. pictum is native. Engler (1879, p. 437) reduced A. gracile to synonymy under A. pictum. Engler later (1915, p. 33) placed A. gracile as an unpublished name under A. simplex. This disposition seems mistaken since the leaves are variegated and the spathe decurrency is very short. I am returning A. gracile to synonymy under A. pictum.

I designate the plate on page 6 in Bull (1894) as the neotype of Aglaonema versicolor. This plate was published subsequently to the original publication but clearly represents the plant Bull earlier had in mind. Bull’s plant differs from A. pictum only in its variegation: “… irregularly blotched with patches of dark velvety green interspersed among patches of lighter green, and some of milky white.” Thus, the leaves have three colors and it may be difficult to tell which is the basic leaf color. Plants of A. pictum with 3-colored leaves with white patches probably are best handled as a cultivar.

The type of Aglaonema pictum var. tricolor is: England, Hort. Veitch, September 1886, without collector [N. E. Brown?] (lectotype: K). No specimen was cited in the original description, but the name was attributed by Engler to N. E. Brown in manuscript. This is the only specimen anotated by N. E. Brown as A. pictum var. tricolor. Engler (1915) described A. pictum var. tricolor as having the blade marked with yellowish and yellowish-green spots. This may be truer of dried specimens than fresh specimens. A slightly different definition was given by van Alderwerelt van Rosenburgh (1922, p. 327) who reported the leaf-blade as “rather marbled with dark green, bright green and pale-grey-green so that the bright green portions are dominant.”

Aglaonema pictum differs from A. nebulosum, the most closely related species, by its longer petiolar sheath. In A. nebulosum the sheath rarely is over twofifths as long as the petiole and in A. pictum the sheath is rarely less than half as long as the petiole. The species also occupy different ranges and habitats. Aglaonema nebulosum is found in lowland swamp forests of Malaya and Borneo, and A. pictum normally is found at over 1000 meters on slopes of Sumatran volcanos.

A number of the specimens appear not to have any leaf variegation: Meijer 6431, Rahmat Si Boeea 10262, Steenis 6407. I cannot justify taxonomic recognition of this nonvariegated material since variegation may fade in dried material and I have found no other characters correlating with the lack of variegation.

Two specimens had definitely lanceolate leaves with the length almost four times the width; Steenis 8887 from Atjeh and Dames 39 from Sibolga. These extreme specimens are joined with the more usual specimens by intermediates such as Bartlett 8169 and Rahmat Si Boeea 6030, in which the length/width ratios vary from 3.0–4.0 on different leaves of the same specimen. This indicates that the extremes do not represent distinct taxa.

The spathe of A. pictum normally seems to be quite globose at anthesis in fresh material, but this is practically impossible to determine in dried and pressed material. The globosity seems to be correlated with a short spathe decurrency (0.2 cm). In nonvariegated fruiting material a short spathe scar is very useful in distinguishing A. pictum from A. simplex since A. simplex typically has the spathe scar 0.5 cm long or more in Sumatran material. Unfortunately, some exceptions are known. There are several specimens with flowering and fruiting material in which the spadix is clearly clavate but the spathe scar is 1 cm long, e.g., Rahmat Si Boeea 10262 and Bünnemeijer 4636.

Rahmat Si Boeea 10262 is extremely anomalous, having peduncles 10–15 cm long, a spathe 5 cm long, a spathe decurrency of 1.0 cm, leaves 9.5 cm wide, petiole 14 cm long, and the sheath 13 cm long. All these measurements are extremes for the species. Since the material, however, has a clavate spadix and its ratios fall with A. pictum, I have decided to place it here.