红壳砂仁 hong ke sha ren

Amomum aurantiacum H. T. Tsai & S. W. Zhao in H. T. Tsai & P. S. Chen, Acta Phytotax. Sin. 17(4): 91. 1979, not Ridley (1920).

Plants 2--2.5 m tall. Pseudostems brown pubescent. Ligule 2-cleft, 6--7 mm, densely yellow villous; petiole very short; leaf blade abaxially light green, narrowly lanceolate, ca. 30 × 5--6.5 cm, adaxially sparsely and shortly appressed brown hairy, abaxially densely villous, base cuneate, apex caudate. Spikes oblong; peduncle ca. 3 cm, villous, scalelike sheaths purple, deltoid, villous; bracts purple, oblong, ca. 1.2 cm × 5 mm. Calyx ca. 1.5 cm, apex 3-toothed. Corolla tube yellow-red, ca. 1 cm. Lateral staminodes linear, ca. 1 cm, apex emarginate. Labellum white, yellow with purple spots at center, orbicular, ca. 1.8 cm in diam., apex acute, 2-cleft. Filament ca. 1 cm; anther oblong, ca. 8 mm; connective appendage 3-lobed, central lobe semiorbicular, lateral ones linear. Capsule orange, subglobose or ovoid, 1.3--1.8 × 0.7--1.1 cm, appressed rusty hairy, with sparse, fleshy spines. Seeds red-brown, 4- to many angled. Fl. May--Jun, fr. Aug--Sep.

* Forests; ca. 600 m. Yunnan.

Medicinal.