| Description : |
Epiphytic or lithophytic herbs with erect bulbiferous slender shoots. Leaves 20-30 cm across, ovate, apex acute, base cordate, glossy above; nerves prominent; petiole to 40 cm long. Inflorescence solitary, on erect, terminal peduncle, covered with large cataphylls; spathes obovate to rhomboid, spreading, yellowish white; tube short, 5 cm long, ellipsoid, limb to 10 x 7 cm, acute; spadix 5 cm long. Female flowers many, ovary globose, 1-celled; ovules many, parietal, stigma 3-lobed, globose. Male flowers many, on clavate above part of the spadix; stamens 6, united. Tuber depressed globose, 2-4 × 3.5-5 cm; stolons erect, simple, stout; bulbils ellipsoid, 0.5-2.5 mm, stout; bristles to 1.5 mm, stout. Cataphylls 4 or more, brownish, broad, concealing peduncle, ca. 15 × 3 cm. Petiole 19-42 cm, proximal 1/4 sheathing; leaf blade glossy on both sides, pale green abaxially, green adaxially, oblong-ovate or lanceolate, 11-33 × 7-19.5 cm, sinus 1.5-3 cm; intramarginal vein indistinct. Flowering before leaves develop. Peduncle 6-12 cm. Spathe tube green outside, 3-5 × 1.3-2 cm; limb initially erect, later reflexed, yellow inside, obovate, 5.3-11.5 × 2.5-9 cm, narrowed to base, apex acute, apiculate. Spadix: female zone 1.7-2 cm × 7-9 mm, with 3 or 4 whorls of sterile ovaries at apex and 1 or 2 whorls at base; sterile zone 1.1-2.5 cm, slender, tapering distally; male zone yellowish, clavate, cylindric, 1.5-2.2 cm × 4-7 mm. Fl. Apr-Sep. 2n = 28, 42. |
| Curated Medicinal Use / Activity : |
The tubers are poisonous. They are used externally to treat mastitis, traumatic injuries, abscesses, and swellings. The plant is used in folk medicine to cure inflammation, arthritis, to dispel worms and germs for disinfecting genito-urinary tract and for promoting conception, also used as an analgesic. |