红花砂仁 hong hua sha ren

Rhizomes strongly aromatic. Plants 1.5--3 m tall. Leaves sessile or subsessile; ligule 2-cleft, 5--8 mm, membranous, glabrous, lobes obtuse at apex; leaf blade narrowly elliptic, 35--40 × 4--11 cm, glabrous, base cuneate, apex acuminate. Spikes ellipsoid, ca. 4 cm in diam.; peduncle ca. 2.5 cm, scalelike sheaths dense, leathery; bracts purple, lanceolate, mostly acuminate, lacerate when dry; bracteoles rose with pale brown apex, tubular, ca. 4 cm × 8 mm, split nearly to base on 1 side. Calyx rose with pale brown apex, 2.7--3.2 cm × ca. 5 mm, pubescent, apex truncate or obscurely 3-lobed. Corolla tube white, equaling or slightly longer than calyx; lobes rose, narrowly elliptic, ca. 3 cm × 6--9 mm. Labellum with yellow midvein and purple stripes on each side, pale at apex, elliptic, ca. 3.2 × 1.6 cm, base white villous, margin crisped, apex toothed. Anther 1--1.5 cm; connective appendage pale brown, 3-lobed, lateral lobes linear, 5--7 mm. Ovary white pubescent. Fr. May.

* Wet places, roadsides; ca. 900 m. Yunnan.