盾片蛇菰属 dun pian she gu shu

Plants monoecious or dioecious. Rhizome thick, smooth or irregularly corrugate, containing abundant starch, with sheathlike extension surrounding base of scape. Leaves on male shoots scale-like but absent on female shoots. Scape robust. Inflorescences spadixlike, oblong-cylindric, covered by numerous scale-like bracts and flowers; scale-like bracts thick, multiangular peltate, complanate, margin adherent, caducous at anthesis. Male flowers: perianth tubular, apex irregularly dentate or 4-lobed. Stamens connate into a synandrium; anthers united into a head, with 20-30 locelli in 2 or 3 layers. Female flowers: perianth adnate to ovary, forming 2 low crests apically on ovary. Ovary ellipsoid, 1-loculed; ovules anatropous. Styles 2, elongated; stigmas capitate. Fruit narrowly oblong. Seeds globose.

Two species: Africa (Madagascar), E and SE Asia; one species in China.

Lower Taxon

• Rhopalocnemis phalloides Junghuhn