Longer bracteoles of the female flowers mostly 1-1.5 times as long as the perianth. Stigma-bases and upper part of lid of fruit scarcely swollen, fruit with no distinct “neck”.

Type: Linnean specimen 1117/25 (LINN, holotype!).

Distribution (of subspecies): Throughout the warmer regions of the world as a garden ornamental, and in some regions as a potherb or grain crop. As a spontaneous weed it occurs chiefly in Asia eastwards from Malaya (Indonesia, New Guinea, the Philippines etc.) and in tropical Africa. Although the fact is not recorded, the one Pakistani specimen cited is certainly of a cultivated plant; it is of the var. cruentus with a red inflorescence.