蛇菰 she gu

Plants monoecious or rarely dioecious. Rhizome yellowish brown, unbranched or in a mass, surface with granular warts and scattered yellow stellate lenticels; branches subglobose, depressed, ca. 1.5 × 2.5 cm. Scapes pink, reddish orange, or occasionally yellowish, 3-8 × 0.6-1.5 cm at anthesis, to 12 cm in fruit. Leaves 15-30, spirally arranged or rarely opposite, imbricate, broadly ovate, 1-1.5 × 1.5-1.7 cm, apex obtuse. Inflorescences ellipsoid, ovoid, or conically ovoid, 1-3 × 1-2 cm. Male flowers: basally on androgynous inflorescences, actinomorphic, subtended by short rudimentary bracts. Pedicel 4-5 mm. Perianth lobes 4 or 5, ovate-elliptic, apex acute. Synandria subglobose, stipe 0.5-1 mm; anthers 4 or 5, U-shaped. Spadicles subclavate, apical 1/2 ellipsoid; cuticular ridges of apical cells short but distinct and congested. Female flowers: yellowish, basally on spadicles and main axis of inflorescence. Fl. Dec.

Coastal forests; near sea level to 900 m. Taiwan [Indonesia, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), New Guinea, Philippines; Australia, Pacific Islands].