独角莲 du jiao lian

Typhonium giganteum Engler, Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 4: 66. 1883; T. giganteum var. giraldii Baroni; T. giraldii (Baroni) Engler; T. stoliczkae Engler.

Underground part a rhizome, 5-8 × 2-5 cm, producing numerous annual fusiform offsets. Petiole green, with or without numerous purple spots, 20-60 cm; leaf blade ovate, cordate to hastate, 15-45 × 9-25 cm, margin entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescence preceding or simultaneous with leaves; peduncle 13-17 cm. Spathe convolute at base, erect, oblong-ovate, 4-8 cm; limb erect or recurved, ovate, to 15 cm, margin sinuous, apex acuminate. Spadix sessile or nearly so, slightly shorter than spathe, to 14 cm; female zone cylindric, 1-1.5 cm × ca. 8 mm; ovary: basal part whitish, apical part purple, cylindric, apex truncate, 2-ovuled; stigma sessile, gray, disciform; sterile zone 2-3 cm, covered by distant staminodes of different types; proximal staminodes with clavate apical part, middle ones with subulate apical part, distal ones with apical part reduced to a stump; male zone ca. 2 cm × 8 mm; male flowers sessile; anthers ± cream-colored, with pinkish flushes, ovoid, opening by apical pore; appendix sessile, cylindric, to 6 cm, ca. 5 mm in diam. at base, base slightly attenuate, apex obtuse. Fruiting zone elongate, naked, ca. 5 × 3 cm; berries crowded, violet-purple, keeled, apex acute. Fl. Jul.

● Grasslands, field sides, streamsides, grassy slopes; below 1500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, S Xizang; cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Jilin, and Yunnan as a medicinal plant.