Himalayan Wild Flowers - III

Common name: Elephant Cobra Lily Botanical name: Arisaema elephas    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Elephant Cobra Lily is an interesting species of Cobra Lily found in China, Bhutan and Myanmar. We found it growing in Arunachal Pradesh too. The "hood" or the spathe is purple, with white or greenish vertical stripes, carried on a leafless stalk 11-15 cm long. The "tongue of the cobra", or the spadix, is purple, and protrudes erect above the hood. The plant has only one trifoliate leaf, carried on a 20-30 cm long green stalk, which has 2 cm thick base. Leaflets are green - central leaflet is obovate to inverted heart-shaped, stalkless, 5-10 cm long, 6-13 cm wide. Lateral leaflets are oblique oblong or ovate, 7-14 cm long, 5-10 cm wide, pointed, base broadly wedge-shaped. Elephant Cobra Lily is found in meadows, mossy rocks, at altitudes of 1800-4000 m. Flowering: June-July.         Common name: Blushing Cobra Lily Botanical name: Arisaema erubescens    Family: Araceae (arum family) This smaller Cobra Lily reaches 40 cm in height, but this doesn't take away from its unique beauty. Its spathe varies in colour from pale purplish red to purplish pink. The botanical name erubescens means blushing (reddening). The spathe has white stripes on the inside below, and ovate long pointed down-curved blade.Spadix blunt, slightly longer than the cylindrical spathe-tube. Leaf has 7-14 narrow lance-like, long pointed radiating leaflets. The long leaf stalk is variegated brown, 12-30 cm high. Seen at altitudes of 2000-2600 m in the Himalayas. Flowering: May-June.           Common name: Yellow Cobra Lily, Yellow Jack in the Pulpit Botanical name: Arisaema flavum    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Yellow Cobra Lily can be distinguished from all other cobra lilies by its very small yellowish or greenish hood, 1.5-4 cm, which is usually dark purple on the inside. The stem carrying the hood is 10-40 cm tall. Leaves are digitately compound with 5-11 oblong-lanceshaped leaflets 2.5-12 cm long. Yellow Cobra Lily is found in the Himalayas, from Afghanistan to SW China, at altitudes of 1800-4500 m. Flowering: May-June.       Common name: Green Taro, cocoyam, taro, aivi, dasheen • Hindi: अरवी Arvi, Ashukachu, कचालू Kachalu • Manipuri: পান Pan • Marathi: आलू aaloo, चेम्पू Chempu, रान आलू Ran aalu • Tamil: Sempu, shamakkilangu • Malayalam: Chempu, Chempakizhanna • Telugu: Chamadumpa, Chamagadda, Chamakura • Kannada: Kesavedantu, Keshavanagadde • Bengali: Kachu, Alti kachu • Oriya: Jongal saaru • Mizo: Bal, Dawl • Sanskrit: Aaluki, Alukam, Alupam, kachchi Botanical name: Colocasia esculenta    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Green Taro is a tuberous bulb plant growing 3-5 ft tall. The large leaves of the plant resemble elephant ears. It produces heart shaped leaves 2-3 ft long and 1-2 ft across on 3 ft long stalks that all emerge from an upright tuberous rootstock, technically a corm. The inflorescence, which is rarely produced in cultivated plants, is a pale green spathe and spadix, typical of the arum family. The corm is shaped like a top with rough ridges, lumps and spindly roots, and usually weighs around 0.5-1 kg, but occasionally as much as 3.5 kg. The skin is brown and the flesh is white or pink. Certain kinds of taros produce smaller tubers or "cormels" which grow off the sides of the main corm.           Common name: Dwarf Gonatanthus • Nepali: लेलधामखोस Leldhamkhos, पतरकच Patarkach Botanical name: Gonatanthus pumilus    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Synonyms: Caladium pumilum, Gonatanthus sarmentosus Dwarf Gonatanthus is a herb which is characterized by large ovate-oblong heart-shaped, Arbi-like leaves. Leaves are 8-15 cm long and 5-10 cm broad, attached to a long stalk from the middle of the blade (what is called a peltate leaf). Flower is a 15-25 cm long stick like spadix, wrapped in a green covering (spathe). Fruit is a head of small yellow berries enclosed in the spathe-tube. The rootstock of the plant is tuberous. Flowering: June-August.     Common name: Creeping Philodendron Botanical name: Rhaphidophora decursiva    Family: Araceae (Arum family) Synonyms: Raphidophora decursiva Creeping Philodendron is a robust evergreen climber, climbing into trees up to 10 m or more by means of roots produced from stem. Leaves are large, glossy, in 2 rows, pinnately lobed. This plant can be easily mistaken for Split Leaf Philodendron, a common house-plant. Each leaf has 8-15 pairs of lobes. Leaf stalks are stout, abruptly bent at the tip. Spathe is pale yellow, 12.5-17.5 cm long, leathery, falling early. Spadix is shorter, white, cylindric, with crowded flowers. Creeping Philodendron is found in the Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to Burma, at altitudes up to 1500 m. Flowering: November.