黄苞海芋 huang bao hai yu

Colocasia navicularis K. Koch & C. D. Bouché, Index Seminum Hort. Berol. 1853: 13. 1853.

Pachycaul herbs, massive, to 1.5 m, evergreen, with milky latex. Stem erect to decumbent. Leaves several together, clustered at tips of stems of larger plants; petiole up to 1.5 m, sheath margins membranous; leaf blade peltate, cordate-ovate, ca. 130 × 120 cm, apex shortly acuminate; primary lateral veins 9-12 on each side. Inflorescences 2 or 3 together among leaf bases; peduncle 40-45 cm, stout, much exceeding cataphylls at anthesis. Spathe 10-20 cm, constricted ca. 1/6 of way from base; proximal part green, ovoid; limb dark yellow, broadly oblong-lanceolate, 18-15 × 4-8 cm, cowl-like at anthesis. Spadix shorter than spathe, shortly stipitate; female zone 1-2 × ca. 1.5 cm; pistil mid-green, ca. 3 mm in diam.; stigma sessile, 3- or 4-lobed, lobes blunt, pale green; sterile zone equaling male zone, ivory, narrowed corresponding to spathe constriction; synandrodes whitish, stained purple, rhombic-hexagonal, ca. 2.5 mm in diam.; male zone white, cylindric, 3-4 × ca. 1.5 cm; synandria rhombic-hexagonal, convex-topped due to cap-forming synconnective, ca. 1.5 mm in diam.; appendix white, narrowly conic, 3-4 × 1-2 cm, equaling ca. 1/3 length of spadix, ± same thickness as male zone at base. Fruiting spathe ellipsoid, 5-11 cm. Fruit ripening dark red, ellipsoid, ca. 10 × 6 mm.

Moist evergreen lower-montane forests, sometimes on limestone. S Yunnan [N Bangladesh, NE India (Assam), N Laos, N Myanmar, Nepal, N Thailand, N Vietnam].