Amorphophallus consimilis

Blume

Apaty, Gingi

AraceaeRoots

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(c) Lucy Keith-Diagne, some rights reserved (CC BY), uploaded by Lucy Keith-Diagne

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(c) paulocatry, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Tubers - young, Corm, Root

Young tubers are eaten after extensive processing—pounded and boiled together with leaves of Cissus gracilis and Spondias mombin.

Where to Find It

A tropical plant.

Africa, Guinea, Guinée, Senegal, West Africa,

Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A herb. It has a flattened tuber 4-7 cm across and 2-4 cm high. It has an irregular shape. The surface is rough or scaly. The flower appears before the leaf. The leaf is 60-80 cm tall. The leaf stalk can be 25-50 cm tall and up to 1 cm across. It has dark purple spots. The leaf blade is 30-45 cm across and divided twice into leaflets. The end leaflets are 7-12 cm long by 3-5 cm wide. The flowering stalk can be 20-45 cm tall. The spathe is 5-11 cm long and with a vase shape with a constriction. The flowers are close together along the spadix in 3 spirals. The fruit are berries with single seeds