from the Greek amorphos (formless or deformed), and phallus, alluding to the hideous spadix of the type species

Small to gigantic, generally deciduous, cormous (rarely rhizomatous), geophytic herbs. Leaf usually solitary, subtended by membranous evanescent cataphylls; petiole erect, sheathing only in lowermost subterranean part, often mottled, sometimes warty, spongy inside; blade rarely pedate, usually highly compound with 3 repeatedly ‘dichotomous’ rachises, with ultimate branches bearing ±pinnately-arranged petiolulate to sessile to partly confluent, mostly elliptic leaflets with brochidodromous venation. Inflorescence solitary, usually produced in absence of leaves, often saproentomophilous and foul-smelling, occasionally sweetly fragrant; peduncle short or like petiole; spathe narrowly ovate and simple to very large and campanulate, variously coloured, deliquescent; spadix mostly sessile, monoecious; female zone contiguous with male (in Australia); pistils naked; male zone ostensibly a mass of stamens or male flowers ±definable, atepalate; anthers sessile, ±truncate; appendix well developed, finger-like to grotesquely gnarled. Infructescence often on elongated peduncle. Fruits ovoid, c. 1–2 (–5) cm long, blue to red.

2n = mostly 26 or 28, G.Petersen, Nordic J. Bot. 9: 136 (1989).

A genus of c. 170 species from tropical Africa, Indomalesia to China and Japan, Australia and Oceania; 2 species in Australia, neither endemic.

C.L.Blume, Amorphophallus, Rumphia 1: 138–149 (1836/7); A.Hay, Amorphophallus in Australasia, Aroideana 11(1): 14–19 (1988). W.Hetterscheid & S.Ittenbach, Everything you always wanted to know about Amorphophallus..., Aroideana 19: 7–131 (1996).

Flora of Australia Volume 39