Gonatanthus ornatus Schott; Remusatia ornata (Schott) H. Li & Q. F. Guo.

Herbs, cormous. Tuber dark outside, white inside, depressed globose, 0.5-3 × 0.5-3 cm; new roots and buds appearing at apex in Apr-May; stolons much branched, spreading, pendulous, sometimes simple and creeping; bulbils numerous, smaller. Cataphylls white, lanceolate, ca. 9 cm, membranous, convolute around both leaf and flower buds. Leaves 2, appearing in Jun (after anthesis), spreading one after another; petiole tinged reddish, with darker markings, up to 45 cm × ca. 8 mm; leaf blade becoming purple abaxially, green adaxially, ovate-lanceolate, first leaf up to 30 × 13 cm, membranous, peltate and cordate at base, long acuminate at apex; second leaf appearing from sheath in proximal part of petiole of first leaf, petiole 10-20 cm, leaf blade smaller, ca. 14 × 4.5 cm. Flowering before leaves develop. Peduncle greenish, 4-13 cm × 1.5-3.5 mm. Spathe 3-7 cm; tube convolute, green outside, dark purple inside, ovoid, 1.3-2.7 cm × 5-10 mm; limb deciduous, semispreading to erect, entirely yellow-green, ovate, 2-4.5 × ca. 3.3 cm, apex acute. Spadix sessile, yellow-green, shorter than spathe; female zone yellow-green, ca. 11 × 4 mm; female flowers partly 4-loculed; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.1 mm in diam.; stigma sessile, disciform; placentae parietal; ovules many, orthotropous; sterile zone attenuate, yellow, ca. 7 × 2 mm; sterile male flowers rhombic or elliptic, apex truncate; male zone capitate, ellipsoidal, to 9 × 5 mm, apex obtuse; male flowers clavate or cuneate, apex truncate, with fleshy connective, with 4-6 oblong thecae opening by a terminal pore. Fl. May. 2n = 28, 42.

The plants from C Yunnan have a triploid chromosome number of 42, but plants from Dulongjiang and from Dali are diploid with different karyotypes.

Evergreen forests, on mossy rocks or tree stumps; 1800-2800 m. Yunnan [Bhutan, India (Assam, Himachal Pradesh), Nepal, N Thailand].