| Original Botanical Description or Link to | Monoecious rhizomatous herb, 30–45 cm tall.
Rhizomes elongate, stout, 8–12 × 1.2–2 cm, grayish
with many fibrous roots. Stems cane-like, 25–35 cm
long, 3–5 mm thick, dark brown-green, succulent,
pilose. Leaves 3–5 per stem, alternate, lamina succulent
when fresh, membranous when dry, asymmetric,
ovate-lanceolate, 15–27 × 8–12 cm, base oblique
cordate, apex acuminate, margin biserrate; adaxial
surface waxy, dark green, slightly verrucous and
sparely scabrid; abaxial surface reddish, scabrid and
densely pilose on veins; venation palmate, veins
7–9, prominent beneath. Petioles 5–22 cm long, dark
brown-green, fleshy, pilose. Stipules triangular,
12–22 × 3–6 mm, margin entire, apex acuminate,
outer surface pilose, reddish-green. Inflorescences
compound cymes, arising from axils of the leafy
stem, branched 2–4 times, bisexual, 10–15 cm long,
staminate flowers distal and pistillate flowers basal,
protandrous. Peduncles 5–10 cm long, green-reddish
to dark brown, terete, verrucose. Bracts lanceolate,
10–20 × 5–8 mm, apex acute, margin strigose, pilose
on outer surface, glabrous on inner surface, pale green. Staminate flowers: pedicels 10–15 mm long,
straight, recurved near apex, reddish, strigose; tepals
4, reddish, outer pair elliptic-orbiculate, 14–15 ×
10–12 mm, apex obtuse-rounded, strigose on outer
surface, inner pair elliptic-oblong, 8–10 × 3.5–5 mm,
apex rounded to obtuse, glabrous; stamens ca 119,
bright yellow, filaments free, cluster, 1.2–2.2 mm
long, anthers elliptic-oblong, 1.8–2mmlong, dehiscing
by longitudinal slits near the apex, apex rounded.
Pistillate flowers: pedicels 10–15 mm long, dark red
to green, sparsely villous, scabrid on surface; tepals
5, red, outer pair unequal, elliptic, 14–15 × 10–11
mm, apex rounded, sparsely strigose and scabrid on
outer surface, inner 3 smaller, narrowly elliptic, 9–13
× 5–8 mm, apex rounded, glabrous to scabrid on
outer surface; ovary green, red-brown toward on
wings, few sparsely strigose, colliculate on surface
(event distinctive on wings), with 3 unequal wings;
dorsal wing broadly falcate-elongate or elongatetriangular, lateral wing triangular, apex acute;
2-locular, placentation axillary, two branches per
locule; styles 2, connate at the middle into common
stalk, dark yellow, stigma spiral and minutely
papillose. Fruits green, globose, 20–25 × 50–55 mm
(including wigs), strigose, colliculate on surface.
Seeds numerous, ellipsoid, ca 0.4 × 0.25mm, reticulate,
brownish-yellow. |
