Caladium giganteum Blume, Cat. Gew. Buitenzorg, 103. 1823; Leucocasia gigantea (Blume) Schott.

Herbs, large to gigantic, evergreen, with massive, stout epigeal stem. Leaves very large; petiole pale green, strikingly pruinose, to 2.5 m, proximal half sheathing; leaf blade white pruinose abaxially, especially when immature, green or pale green adaxially, ovate-cordate, 25-250 × 17-150 cm, membranous, base cordate, peltate, margin undulate, apex shortly acuminate. Inflorescences 5-13 arising from leaf axil (actually terminal on shoot and displaced by new shoot); peduncle pruinose, cylindric, 30-80 × 1-2 cm, each with a membranous cataphyll nearly equaling length of peduncle. Spathe 12-24 cm; tube green, ellipsoid, 3-6 × 1.5-2 cm; limb erect, white, oblong-boat-shaped, distinctly constricted, 8-19 × 2-3 cm. Spadix 9-20 cm; female zone white or cream-colored, conic; sterile zone 3-4.5 cm, slender; male zone 5-14 cm; appendix very short, 1-5 mm, apex acute. Berry oblong, ca. 5 mm. Seeds many, fusiform, with many distinct longitudinal striations. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Sep. 2n = 28.

Valley forests, limestone-associated, usually on moist but well-drained sites, also cultivated; 100-700 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Yunnan; cultivated in Anhui, Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, and Zhejiang [Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular), Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam; widely cultivated in SE Asia].