刺柄南星 ci bing nan xing

Arisaema cochleatum Stapf ex H. Li.

Plants dioecious. Tuber depressed globose, ca. 3 cm in diam. Cataphylls 2 or 3, purplish, 15-20 cm. Leaf solitary; petiole 30-50 cm, with dense whitish papillose spines, basal ca. 5 cm sheathing into pseudostem; leaf blade 3-foliolate; central leaflet broadly obovate, 16-23 × 18-27 cm, base cuneate, apex truncate or concave with acute acumen; lateral leaflets rhombic-oblong, 17-28 × 15-22 cm; all leaflets spinose at midrib abaxially. Peduncle 25-60 cm, verrucose, scabrid. Spathe dark purple, with whitish green stripes; tube cylindric, 5-6 cm, throat margins not recurved or auriculate; limb suberect, oblanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 8-12 cm, apex acuminate. Spadix unisexual; female zone conic, 2-3 cm; ovary subcylindric; stigma sessile, disciform; male zone cylindric, ca. 3 cm; synandria lax, shortly stipitate; anthers 2 or 3, yellowish, depressed globose, dehiscing by horseshoe-shaped slit. Appendix cylindric, 6.5-9 cm, base abruptly thickened, 2.5-4 mm in diam., truncate, with stipe 3-5 mm, apex slightly recurved, not pendulous. Fl. May-Jun.

● Forests, thickets; 1300-2900 m. Chongqing, S Gansu, W Henan, W Hubei, NE Hunan, Shanxi, E Sichuan.