海桐蛇菰 hai tong she gu

Balanophora harlandii J. D. Hooker var. spiralis P. C. Tam; B. wrightii Makino ex Makino & Nemoto.

Plants monoecious, creamy yellow to reddish. Rhizome branched, surface scabrous, densely covered with speckles and stellate lenticels; branches subspheroid to flat-spheroid, 1.5-2.2 cm wide. Leaves 5-10, scattered on scape, oblong-lanceolate, oblong ovate, or broadly ovate, 8-14 × 5-8 mm, scale-like. Scapes yellowish, 1-5.5 × 0.4-0.8 cm. Inflorescences androgynous, conic, ovoid-ellipsoid, or ovoid, 1.8-4 × 1-2 cm. Male flowers: scattered between spadicles and female flowers, shortly pedicellate, 2-3 mm in diam. Perianth lobes 3, spreading, ovate to subrounded. Synandria subdiscoid; anthers 3, transversely dehiscent. Spadicles subglobose, shortly stiped; apical cells smooth. Female flowers: only on main axis of inflorescences. Fl. Aug-Dec.

Forests, moist mountain slopes; ca. 500 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, Jiangxi, Taiwan [Japan].

The hosts are usually species of Pittosporum and Rhaphiolepis.