PlantFiles: Synandrospadix
Synandrospadix vermitoxicus

Synandrospadix vermitoxicus is, undoubtedly, one of the most exciting aroids you will ever grow! It is just as spectacular as the more readily available Amorphophallus species, is easier to grow, and the seed has a much better viability with a virtually 100% germination rate but it inexplicably remains a very difficult plant to get hold of. It is native to several South American countries (Argentina, Paraguay, etc) and makes a huge tuber, which produces a 4 foot wide spread of huge, leathery glaucous leaves and a succession of spectacular, long-lasting purple and green spathes with extraordinary spiky spadices and a strange though not unpleasant sweetish mushroom aroma. Use a very free-draining compost and a large (at least 18 inch) pot, plant the tubers deep, place in a sunny to lightly shaded location and feed often. After the leaves die down in late Autumn, store the tubers completely dry over winter and replant in Spring. This fabulous plant is very easy to grow from seed and can flower in only its third season. Offsets are only rarely produced, though a few plants produce them regularly.