屏边南星 ping bian nan xing

Plants monoecious and male. Rhizome prolonged and thin, 10-15 × 1-2 cm, nodes swollen and globose. Cataphylls 3, pale green with violet spots, encircling peduncle. Leaves 2, arising at different seasons from different rhizome nodes; petiole green, cylindric, to 20 cm × 3-4 mm, base shortly sheathing; leaf blade 3-foliolate, green, membranous; central leaflet with petiolule ca. 1.7 cm, blade elliptic, 9-13.5 × 4-5.5 cm, base cuneate; lateral leaflets with petiolule 3-6 mm, blade obliquely ovate-lanceolate, base oblique, apex acuminate with acumen 1.5-2 cm; lateral veins 5-7 on each side, collective vein 1-2 mm from margin. Peduncle encircled by cataphyll, green, cylindric, shorter than petioles, ca. 15 cm. Spathe tube subcylindric, 4-4.5 × ca. 1 cm, throat margins spreading outward; limb green, with a rounded white area ca. 1.5 cm in diam. at proximal part, oblong, 3.5-4 cm, apex abruptly acuminate with a filiform tip. Spadix bisexual after sex change; proximal female zone congested with female flowers; ovary green, obovoid; distal male zone with sparse male flowers; synandria of 2 or 3 fused stamens; anthers brown to creamy white, globose, dehiscing by 2 apical pores; appendix nearly filiform, ca. 3 cm, distal ca. 1 cm covered with numerous filiform neuter flowers, brushlike; neuter flowers slightly recurved, brown or green, filiform, 2-3 mm. Fl. Dec.

● Secondary evergreen forests; 1000-1600 m. SE Yunnan.