味极苦姜黄 wei ji ku jiang huang

Plants ca. 1 m tall. Rhizomes yellow inside, bluish green outside, large, bitter; root tubers white inside. Petiole reddish brown, long; leaf blade green, oblong, ca. 45 × 14 cm, glabrous. Inflorescences on separate shoots arising from rhizomes; spike cylindric, ca. 14 × 9 cm; fertile bracts ovate, ca. 5 cm; coma bracts whitish, apex red and pink. Calyx ca. 1 cm, apex 3-lobed. Corolla red; tube ca. 2 cm; lobes oblong, ca. 1 cm, apex acute. Lateral staminodes and labellum yellow. Labellum semielliptic, 3-lobed; central lobe with central, deep yellow band, apex emarginate. Ovary puberulent. Fl. May.

Forest floors; ca. 800 m. S Yunnan (Mengla Xian) [Bangladesh].