Voodoo lily - Amorphophallus bulbifer

Common Name :	Devil's Tongue, Voodoo Lily, Snake Palm.
Botanical Name :	Amorphophallus bulbifer
Family :	Araceae
Bengali Name :	Ol kochu.
Photo Taken :	Bangladesh

Name of the plant is Voodoo lily, also known as Devil's tongue, Snake palm, etc. This plant is almost similar to the species Amorphophallus Campanulatus, which we use to call Ol Kochu, but only the flower is different. That's why we also know the plant by same name in Bangladesh. Botanical name of the plant is Amorphophallus bulbifer. It belongs to the plant family Araceae. This is native to India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and the proximity area.





Voodoo lily (Amorphophallus bulbifer) is an erect herbaceous plant that can grow up to 3 feet in height. This is an annual plant with having a soft trunk and the leafs are at top. Its leafs are use to be dark green during rainy season and grows rapidly that time. During winter the leafs use to desiccate and root remains dormant. During that period, it cannot stand water around the plant.





The inflorescence flower is rosy in color and having a phallic object at the middle of the flower. It has a single petal but rolled in such a way that it looks like a tuber petal. It has a 12-18 inches spotted stalk (almost like skin of snake). I didn't find any smell from the flower, but according to experts, it uses to have a negative fragrance during few hours of initial blooming.





In India, this plant uses to call as Devil's Tongue. Possibly because of the perioral burning and itching if you try to eat the root of the plant. But still the root (or rhizome) of the plant is a very tasty vegetable. I like them when cooked with certain kind of river fishes.


Photos of this article were taken from the following locations of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh this is known as Ol kochu (ওল কচু).
1. April 2011: Bandarban.


This article has written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog http://icflora.blogspot.com/