Once we made our first wide cross in the genus Arisaema, back in the early 1990s, we realized that there were probably few interspecific crosses in the Araceae family that weren’t possible, so we ramped up our work, as time permitted. The genus, Amorphophallus, was one of these in which we further explored the lack of crossing barriers. Amorphophallus dunnii (Southern China) and Amorphophallus henryi (Taiwan) were two species of interest, due to their good garden performance, and slightly overlapping flowering times. Amorphophallus dunnii produces more pollen than any of the other winter hardy species, so that was selected as the dad, while we find it hard to ever isolate pollen from Amorphophallus henryi, so it became the mom. At the time, word on the streets was that Amorphophallus dunnii was apomictic, and incompatible with other species.
Our crosses yielded almost 50 seed, of which 39 sprouted. We were encouraged when most of the seedlings germinated as pure white albinos. As they continued to grow, most gradually turned green. Within the aroid family, wide crossed between distantly related species often produces a good number of albino plants, so we took this as a good sign that our cross was successful.
Below is one of our first named hybrids, a 2018 selection, which we just released this year, 2026 under the name Amorphophallus x dunryi ‘Peter Pancake’. As you can see, the color was inherited from the very fragrant Amorphophallus henryi parentage, while the speckled stems came from the dad, Amorphophallus dunnii, which also has no noticeable floral fragrance. I don’t recall detecting much fragrance, certainly not compared to A. henryi.
Below are the parents, first, the mom, Amorphophallus henryi.
The dad, Amorphophallus dunnii, is below.
Wow. Love this
Super cross! Waiting for A. titanum. Pollen can be stored for at a year as it worked at Cal State Fullerton when ours flowered in different years. Collect pollen and allow to aur dry in cool place. Place in glassine envelopes and place in a mason jar filled with dry NONFAT milk. Leave in cool place overnight for pollen to equilibrate with trapped air in jar, then place in the freezer. The dry milk will dry to maybe 15% instead of 5% with silica gel which might be too low for tropical species. Nonfat because the fats will oxidize. We got abundant seed the following year when the second plant flowered.
Excellent tip…thanks so much for sharing.
that gaggle of geese (amorphophallus dunnii) is stunning and amusing. I wonder what sort of conversations they are having.
Could be either politics or whole body deodorants.
HOW COOL IS THAT!!