瑶山南星 yao shan nan xing

Plants dioecious. Tuber depressed globose, ca. 2 × 1.5 cm, renewed seasonally, proceeding from a whorl of roots and a few globose offsets at apex around shoot. Cataphylls 2 or 3, whitish green, 5-12 cm, membranous, apex acuminate. Leaves 1 or 2; petiole light green, unspotted, 20-30 cm, basal 10-12 cm sheathing into pseudostem; leaf blade glaucous abaxially, green adaxially, 3-foliolate; leaflets sessile, apex acuminate, with a short tail at tip; collective vein distinct, 3-7 mm from margin; central leaflet rhombic, 8-15.5 × 6-13 cm, base cuneate; lateral leaflets obliquely ovate-rhombic, 9-18 × 6-11 cm, base obtuse on outer side, attenuate on inner side. Peduncle emerging from pseudostem, green without spots, 21-25 cm, shorter than petioles, curved forward after flowering. Spathe pale green; tube white at base, funnelform, 3.3-5 cm × 10-15 mm, throat margins auriculate, recurved outward; limb arching forward and downward, ovate, 4-6 × 2.6-3.9 cm, with longitudinal white lines inside, apex occasionally with a tubular tail 5.5-7.5 cm. Spadix unisexual. Female spadix: female zone green, conic, ca. 15 × 8 mm; ovaries densely distributed, globose; stigma sessile and rounded with serrate margin; appendix sessile, erect, pale green, cylindric, ca. 2.5 cm × 3.5 mm, attenuate to base, usually with a few subulate neuter flowers ca. 3 mm at base. Male spadix: male zone 1-1.5 cm; synandria of 2 or 3 stamens, violet; thecae globose, dehiscing by apical pore; appendix as in female spadix, erect, 2.2-3 cm, without neuter flowers. Infructescence curved forward or pendulous. Fl. May.

● Evergreen forests, secondary Pinus forests, grasslands in limestone areas; 1000-2600 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan.