紫苞海芋 zi bao hai yu

Herbs, terrestrial or lithophytic, to 100 cm tall, seasonally dormant. Stem erect or a tuberlike rhizome; rhizome ca. 10 × 13.5 cm; stolons numerous per plant, pale green, simple, trailing horizontally or pendent, 56-110 cm, internodes cylindric, ca. 5.5 × up to 1 cm, with light green cataphylls, tubercles produced terminally, to 4 × 3 cm. Leaves 3-6 together; petiole light greenish, glossy, terete, to 104 × 3-7.5 cm, sheath to 50 cm, membranous; leaf blade triangular-sagittate, to 82 × 64 cm; basal lobes naked in sinus, membranous, glossy bright green; primary lateral veins 8 per side, conspicuous, interprimary veins forming a feeble collective vein. Inflorescences 2 or 3 together, appearing with leaves; peduncle pale green, cylindric, to 90 cm. Spathe to 28 cm, not constricted between basal convolute part and limb; proximal spathe green, fusiform, ca. 6.5 × 3 cm; limb arched, erect at anthesis, later flopping forward, then deliquescent, purple-pink or whitish, oblong-lanceolate, to 24 × 20 cm. Spadix sessile, shorter than spathe; female zone cylindric, ca. 1.5 × 2 cm; pistil oblong, ca. 5 mm; style short; stigma 3- or 4-lobed; sterile zone cylindric, ca. 5.5 × 1-1.5 cm; synandrodes depressed oblong to depressed ovate, apex truncate or concave; male zone white, cylindric, ca. 3.5 × 2 cm; synandria 5- or 6-merous, rhombic-hexagonal, truncate; appendix white, narrowly conic, to 16.5 × 2.5 cm. Fruiting spathe ellipsoid, ca. 3 × 2.5 cm. Fruit ellipsoid, ca. 1.5 × 0.5 cm, ripening scarlet.

Humid forest margins and exposed areas of forest regrowth in limestone mountains; 900-1000 m. SW Yunnan (Menglian) [N Laos, N Thailand].