Arum orientale M.Bieb.

Tuberous herb sprouting in mid-autumn to late autumn from a discoid, horizontally orientated tuber 4-6 cm across, 2-2.5 cm thick. Petiole terete, 18-46 cm long, 3-7 mm wide, deep greeen, usually stained with purple, especially towards the base. Leaf-blade broadly hastate, apex obtuse to subacute, 8.5-25 cm long, 5.5-17 cm wide, deep green. INFLORESCENCE smelling moderately of horse-dung. Peduncle much shorter than to almost equalling the leaves, terete, 11-19 cm long, 3-4 mm wide, deep green, sometimes stained with purple. Spathe 14.5-30 cm long; spathe-tube oblong-cylindric, 2.5-5.5 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm wide, constricted apically, exterior mid-green with dull purple staining towards the margin and apex, fading to greenish white at the base, interior greenish white below, purple above; spathe-limb ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 12-24.5 cm long, 4-7 cm wide, erect at first but the apex soon flopping forwards, acute to rather bluntly acute, externally pale to mid-green, heavily to moderately stained purple, median vein pale green, internally similarly coloured, but with much heavier purple staining, apex mid-green. Spadix ? - ½ as long as the spathe-limb, 5.5-16 cm in total length; appendix slender-clavate to cylindric, long-stipitate or stalkless, 3.5-13 cm long, 3.6-6.5 cm wide, dull mid-purple, stipe when present generally paler. Staminodes in c. 2 whorls forming a zone 4-7.5 mm long, yellow, flushed with purple; bases conic, smooth, yellow. Interstices upper 3.5-4 mm long, sparsely grooved, minutely verrucate, yellow; lower ± absent. Staminate flowersin an quadrate zone 2-5.5 mm long, 3-5 mm wide; anthers yellow with purple tips, connectives yellow. Pistillodes in 3 or 4 whorls forming a zone 3-7 mm long; bristles filiform, flexuous, 2.5-6 mm long, yellow, flushed with purple; bases compressed conic, smooth, deep yellow. Pistillate flowersin a globose-cylindric cluster, 4.5-20 mm long; ovaries globose, 1.5-2 mm long, dull olive-green, stained with purple apically; stigma papillose, green. Fruiting head cylindric, 4-5.6 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide; berries oblong, 5-10 mm long, 3.5-5 mm wide. Germination unkown in subsp. orientale and subsp. longispathum.