Schott
Description
Arisaema concinnum Schott is a tuberous aroid of the temperate Himalaya, ranging through India, Nepal, China, Bhutan, Myanmar and Pakistan. It is recorded from Bhutan at Tongsa near 2000 m, flowering in May, and from Utaray in West Bengal at about 2200 m in April, within the warm to cool temperate forest belt. The species grows in moist, shaded broadleaved and mixed forest, on humus-rich slopes, in ravines and along streamsides, typically between 1800 and 3000 m, where deep leaf litter and consistent monsoonal moisture favour its growth. Its roughly 216 GBIF records reflect a fairly wide but localised montane distribution.
The plant arises from a depressed globose tuber, producing usually a single large radiate leaf divided into numerous (commonly 7–15) lanceolate, acuminate leaflets arranged in a spreading pedate fan. The inflorescence is the characteristic aroid spadix enclosed in a spathe; in this species the spathe tube is greenish and the limb is striped green and white and drawn out into a long, slender, tail-like apex, while the appendix of the spadix is slender and exserted. As in most Arisaema the plants are paradioecious, shifting sex with size and vigour. Pollinated female inflorescences develop a dense club of red berries, each containing few seeds.
Arisaema concinnum belongs to a large, taxonomically intricate genus centred on the Sino-Himalaya, where rapid diversification and sex-lability have produced many closely allied species. Pollination is effected by fungus gnats lured into the spathe, a system in which the female trap can be lethal to the visiting insect. Widespread across its range, the species is not considered threatened, though forest clearance and tuber collection may locally reduce populations.
Author: Schott · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of Nepal, The Genus Arisaema (Gusman & Gusman)