Arum byzantinum Blume

Tuberous herb sprouting in late autumn from a rhizomatous tuber 5-7 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm thick. Petiole terete, 13-55 cm long, 3-5 mm wide, dull mid-green, tinged and obscurely striped with purple for at least some of its length. Leaf-blade oblong-hastate to triangular, apex acute to obtuse or rounded, 12-25 cm long, 7-18 cm wide, dark green, occasionally with sparse, purple-black spotting. INFLORESCENCE smelling weakly of stale urine. Peduncle shorter than to subequal to the leaves, 5.5-20 cm long, 3-4 mm wide, terete, dull green, lightly stained with purple below. Spathe 8.5-25.5 cm long; spathe-tube ventricose, 2-4.5 cm long, 1.5-2 cm wide, constricted apically, exterior pale green ± stained with brownish purple, interior pale greenish white; spathe-limb narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 6.5-21 cm long, 1,7-8 cm wide, erect, acute to acuminate, the apical portion drooping as the inflorescence ages, externally pale green with light brownish purple staining, especially towards the margins, internally similarly coloured, but with the staining much more pronounced, particularly along the margins. Spadix less than ½ as long as the limb, 4.5-10 cm in total length; appendix slender-clavate, long-stipitate, 2.8-5 cm long, 2-6(-7) mm wide, purple, the stipe somewhat darker. Staminodes in c. 3 whorls, forming a zone 2.5-6 mm long; bristles filiform, 2.5-6 mm long, pale purple; bases conic, verrucate, cream. Interstices: upper 2-2.5 mm long, ± smooth, cream, lower 0.5-1 mm long, with scattered vestigial sterile flowers, cream. Staminate flowers in a ± quadrate zone 1.5-4 mm long, 1.5-3 mm wide; anthers purple and connectives dull yellow. Pistillodes in c . 3 whorls, forming a zone 2.5-4 mm long; bristles filiform, flexuous, 2.5-4 mm long, pale purple; bases laterally compressed-conic, verrucate, cream. Pistillate flowers in an oblong-cylindric cluster 3.5-16 mm long; ovaries oblong, truncate apically, 1.5-2.5 mm long, pale yellowish green, stained with purple apically, stigma darker. Fruiting spike cylindric, 4.5-7 cm long; berries oblong-ovoid, 3.5-9 mm long, 3.5-4 mm wide. Germination unknown.