| Original Botanical Description or Link to | Monoecious rhizomatous herb, up to 35 cm tall.
Rhizomes stout, 7–10 cm long, 5–9 mm in diam., dark
green to reddish-brown, villous. Petioles 12–30 cm long,
green, fleshy, villous with red hairs. Leaves lamina
succulent, asymmetrical, ovate-orbiculate, 8–11 × 6.5–9
cm, base oblique cordate, apex acute, margin sinuate;
adaxial surface green, strigose; abaxial surface pale
green, sparsely villous, densely villous along veins;
venation palmate, veins 6–8, prominent beneath.
Stipules persistent, succulent, broadly triangular, 4–6 ×
3–5.5 mm, reddish, apex acuminate, margin entire, both
surface glabrous. Inflorescences compound cymes,
axillary near the apex of the rhizomes, branched up to 4
times, bisexual, 7–18 cm long, staminate flowers distal
and pistillate flowers basal, protandrous. Peduncles 6–
14 cm long, lightly green, terete, red villous. Bracts
narrowly elliptic to triangular, 10–15 × 5–10 mm, pale
green to reddish, apex acuminate, margin strigose, outer surface villous, inner surface glabrous. Staminate
flowers: pedicels 20–25 mm long, pale green to red, erect
or ascending, sparsely villous; tepals 4, white, outer pair
elliptic-oblong, 20–24 × 12–15 mm, apex obtuse to rounded,
outside surface sparsely villous, inner surface glabrous,
inner pair narrowly elliptic, 12–15 × 2.8–4 mm, apex
rounded, glabrous; stamens c. 45, bright yellow, filaments
cluster, 1.8–2 mm long, free c. 0.4 mm long, anthers
obovate, 1–1.2 mm long, dehiscing by longitudinal slits.
Pistillate flowers: pedicels 4–10 mm long, lightly green,
villous; tepals 3, white, outer 2, broadly elliptic-oblong, 14–
16 × 8–12 mm, apex rounded, outside surface sparsely
villous, inner narrowly elliptic, 7–10 × 3–6 mm, apex
rounded, glabrous; ovary pale pink, sparsely reddish-villous,
with 3 subequal wings; 3-locular, placentation axillary, two
branches per locule; styles 3, connate near the base into a
short stalk, deep yellow, stigmatic band U-shaped, spiral
with minutely papillose. Fruits pale green to reddish (dry
brown), capsules elliptic-subglobose, 1.2–2.2 × 1.5–1.8
mm; locules subglobose, 2–3.5 × 1.9–2.2 mm, dorsal wing
trigonous-globose, 4–5 mm long, lateral wings 2.6–3 mm
wide at base, sparsely villous. Seeds numerous, brown,
ovoid-ellipsoid, 0.1–0.2 × c. 0.1 mm, testa reticulate. |
