Arum venosum Aiton, Hortus Kew. 3: 315. 1789; Arisaema venosum (Aiton) Blume; A. guttatum Wallich (1831), not Salisbury (1796); Desmesia venosa (Aiton) Rafinesque; Jaimenostia fernandopoana Guinea & Gómez Moreno; Sauromatum abyssinicum Schott; S. angolense N. E. Brown; S. guttatum Schott; S. guttatum var. pulchrum (Miquel) Engler; S. guttatum var. simlense (Schott) Engler; S. guttatum var. venosum (Aiton) Engler; S. nubicum Schott; S. nubicum var. angolense (N. E. Brown) Engler; S. pulchrum Miquel; S. punctatum K. Koch; S. simlense Schott; Typhonium venosum (Aiton) Hetterscheid & P. C. Boyce.

Tuber depressed globose, to ca. 9 cm high and ca. 15 cm in diam., producing numerous annual offsets, these globose or depressed globose. Petiole yellowish green, with rounded purplish brown spots, 20-100 cm; leaf blade 9-11-pedatifid; central lobe oblong or oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, 10-40 × 4-20 cm, acuminate; lateral leaflets elliptic, gradually smaller toward distal end of rachis. Inflorescence appearing before leaves; peduncle greenish white, with or without a few brown spots, 3-7 cm, sometimes elongating during fruiting. Spathe base outside dull dark violet, inside rich reddish purple, ellipsoid, 5-10 × 2-4 cm; limb convolute at base, ca. 10 cm, distally outside as base but slightly darker and with a few violet longitudinal stripes, inside background color yellowish, almost entirely covered by numerous orbicular to elliptic, confluent dark purple spots, lanceolate, 30-70 × 8-10 cm, apex acuminate. Spadix slightly shorter than or as long as spathe; female zone subcylindric, 2-2.5 × 1-1.5 cm; ovary violet or pale purple, obovoid, 2-4-ovuled; sterile zone 8-8.5 cm, proximal 2-2.5 cm sparsely covered with long staminodes, distally grooved and with a few distant conic projections, proximally whitish, distally pale brownish violet; staminodes yellow, clavate, 4-10 mm; male zone 1-2 × 1-1.5 cm; stamens yellow; appendix at first erect, finally recurved, pale brown to pale violet or lead-colored, terete, to 30 cm, ca. 1 cm in diam. at base, obtuse. Fruiting zone globose or subcylindric, naked, to ca. 9 cm in diam.; berries crowded, bright purple, cylindric, 5-10 × 2-4 mm, angulate, apex truncate. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul.

Primary evergreen forests, meadows by rivers, secondary thickets, path sides; 1300-2000 m. Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE and NW India, Myanmar, Nepal; Africa].