血红蕉 xue hong jiao

Pseudostems clumped, 1.5--2 m. Petiole ca. 30 cm, margin narrow and open; leaf blade deep green, ovate-oblong, not more than 1 m, base asymmetric, apex obtuse. Inflorescence erect or ascending, becoming pendulous, ca. 20 cm; rachis brown puberulent. Bracts reddish, ovate-lanceolate, 7.5--14 cm. Flowers borne on proximal bracts, 3 per bract, in 1 row. Compound tepal bright yellow, ca. 3.8 cm, apex of outer lobes with a hooklike appendage; free tepal yellow, equaling compound tepal, membranous. Berries grayish yellow-green with red blotches, trigonous oblong, 5--7.5 cm. Seeds numerous, black, ca. 5 mm in diam., irregularly multiangled, tuberculate. 2 n = 22.

Ravine bottoms or semimarshlands; ca. 1000 m. Xizang [India, Indonesia].

Cultivated as an ornamental.