Arisaema cordatum (Araceae)
Plants dioecious. Tuber globose, 1–1.5cm in diam. Cataphylls 2 or 3, ca. 5cm, membranous. Leaf solitary; petiole 10–30cm, slender, base forming short pseudostem; leaf blade pedate; leaflets (5–)7, sessile, light greenish, oblong, 7–10 × 1.5–3cm, membranous, base broadly cuneate, apex acute to abruptly acuminate. Inflorescence emerging before leaf unfolds; peduncle 3–10cm, slender. Spathe basically purplish; tube cream-colored, outside stained with purplish, inside dark purple, funnelform, 3–3.5 × 1–1.4cm, throat margins broadly expanded to limb; limb broadly cordate, ca. 6 × 4cm, apex acuminate and involute, surrounding spadix appendix. Spadix unisexual; female zone ca. 1cm; ovary fusiform; male zone ca. 1cm × 3mm, shortly stipitate; synandria consisting of 2 anthers, thecae globose, dehiscing by apical pores. Appendix sessile, 15–27cm, proximally fusiform, to 4mm in diam., distally upright, exserted through involute apex of spathe limb, filiform.
This material was reprinted with permission from the Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, and Science Press, Beijing.