| Original Botanical Description or Link to | Acaulescent, rhizomatous, perennial herb, to 38 cm tall. Rhizome to 11 cm long, with
strongly compressed internodes, 2–5 mm long. Leaves alternate; stipules ovate-triangular,
18–25 × 10–12 mm, apex narrowed into a bristle up to 16 mm long, glabrous except for
the hairy apical bristle, persistent; petiole 4.8–12.8 cm, glabrous, green to reddish; lamina
basifixed, asymmetrical, 5.8–17.5 × 3.9–12.2 cm, ovate to elliptic, base cordate, basal
lobes overlapping, apex acute to acuminate, adaxial surface green and with pale green
veins, glabrous, abaxial surface pale green to greenish-reddish, paler light green along the
veins, glossy, glabrous, margin sinuate, repand or shallowly lobed, distantly toothed, teeth
often reflexed, sometimes with bristle at apex, margin sometimes distantly ciliate; venation
palmate with 5 or 6 primary veins, secondary veins craspedodromous. Inflorescence
protandrous, axillary, dichasial-cymose, few- to many-flowered, 8–36 cm long; peduncle
5.8–18.5 cm long; bracts narrowly ovate, narrowly elliptic to narrowly obovate, caducous,
to c.2 × 1 mm, smaller in the distal part of the inflorescence, sometimes the basal bracts
with a few hairs abaxially. Male flower pedicel 8–9 mm long, white to pinkish; tepals 4,
white tinged with pink, glabrous, unequal, outer elliptic, 10–11 × 8–9 mm, inner obovate,
12–14 × 6 mm; androecium yellow, symmetrical, globose, stalked at base, filament column
c.1 mm long; stamens 38–44, to c.1.5 mm long, filaments to 0.7 mm long; anthers to
0.8 mm long, dehiscent through lateral slits longer than half of the anther, apex truncateretuse. Female flower pedicel 15–22 mm long, pinkish to reddish; tepals (3 or) 4, pink or
white tinged with pink, unequal, outer broadly ovate, 7–8 × 7–8 mm, inner ovate to elliptic,
5 × 2–4 mm, glabrous; ovary 7–8 × 4 mm (excluding the wings), ellipsoid, green, greenish
tinged with pink, or pink, wings subequal, to 4 mm wide at the widest point (middle part),
convex to cuneate at the base and apex; style to c.3 mm long, fused at base for c.1 mm;
stylodia 3; stigmas 3, U-shaped, stigmatic surface spirally twisted, papillose. Fruit pedicel to
22 mm long; dry capsule dehiscing through lines along the wing attachment, seed-bearing
part ellipsoid, 9–10 × 4–6 mm, wing shape as for ovary, wings to 6 mm at the widest point
(middle part). Seeds barrel-shaped, 300–320 μm long, collar cells > 1/2 the length of the
seed. |
