young shoot icon Home All plants About

Rhopalocnemis phalloides Jungh.

Species

Angiosperms > Santalales > Balanophoraceae > Rhopalocnemis

Characteristics

Monoecious or dioecious plants (inflorescences bisexual or unisexual respectively) with yellowish to brownish colours. Total length from contact with host root to top of inflorescence 15-25 cm. Tubers 6-21 cm ø and 6-13 cm long with a strongly irregularly corrugated surface. Sheath around stem 1-5 cm long, irregularly lobed. Inflorescence-bearing stem 2-10 cm long, 2-5 cm ø, with or without spirally arranged, slightly recurved, warty scales. Inflorescence 7-20 cm long, 3-7½ cm ø. Top part of scales ½ cm ø, in central part often developing a recurved structure much resembling the scales on lower part of stem. Flowers sessile, surrounded by numerous supporting hairs, which produce nectar. Bisexual specimens always with ♂ flowers in lower part of inflorescence.
More
Plants 15-30 cm tall, yellowish to brownish. Rhizome 6-13 × (4-)6-21 cm; sheath lobes 5, irregularly deltoid, 1-2 × 1.2-1.5 cm. Scapes 2-10 × 2-5 cm. Leaves spirally arranged, ± scattered, warty, apically slightly reflexed. Inflorescences 7-20 × 3-7.5 cm, when androgynous male flowers toward base and female flowers toward apex; scale-like bracts larger at middle of inflorescence, apically ca. 5 mm in diam. Flowers sessile.
Life form -
Growth form herb
Growth support parasite
Foliage retention -
Sexuality
Pollination -
Spread -
Mature width (meter) -
Mature height (meter) 0.15 - 0.3
Root system rhizome
Rooting depth (meter) -
Root diameter (meter) -
Flower color -
Blooming months -
Fruit color -
Fruiting months -
Nitrogen fixer -
Photosynthetic pathway -

Environment

Mountain forests, 1000-2700 m. Parasitizing roots of various woody plants: Ficus fistulosa REINW. ex Bl. (Morac.), Quercus pruinosa Bl., Quercus sp. (Fagac.) Macaranga tanarius (L.) M.A. (Euph.), Albizia lophantha (WILLD.) BTH. (Leg.), rarely supraterraneous stems: unknown liana (JUNGHUHN), Ficus sp. (Morac.), Schima wallichii (DC.) KORTH. subsp. noronhae (REINW. ex Bl.) BLOEMB. (Theac.).
Light -
Soil humidity -
Soil texture -
Soil acidity -
Soil nutriment -
Hardiness (USDA) 8-12

Usage

Uses -
Edible -
Therapeutic use -
Human toxicity -
Animal toxicity -

Cultivation

Mode -
Germination duration (days) -
Germination temperacture (C°) -
Germination luminosity -
Germination treatment -
Minimum temperature (C°) -
Optimum temperature (C°) -
Size -
Vigor -
Productivity -

Images

Rhopalocnemis phalloides unspecified picture

Distribution

Rhopalocnemis phalloides world distribution map, present in Bhutan, China, Indonesia, India, Kenya, Cambodia, Nepal, Thailand, and Viet Nam

Identifiers

LSID urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:103397-1
WFO ID wfo-0001140494
COL ID 4SKNQ
BDTFX ID -
INPN ID -
Wikipedia (EN)
Wikipedia (FR)

Synonyms

Phaeocordylis areolata Rhopalocnemis phalloides
WorldFloraDB 2024