Biarum fraasianum (Schott) Nyman

Tuber compressed discoid 4 × 2 cm, with few offsets, pale brown, older tubers with conspicuous, concentric brown rings. Leaves 13–20 cm, hysteranthous, long-petiolate, petioles clasping basally, enclosed by few, c. 3 cm × 2–4 mm linear-triangular to lanceolate pale brownish-cream papery cataphylls; petiole 7–9 cm × c. 2 mm; leaf lamina oblong to oblanceolate, 6–9 × 1.5–4 cm, apex obtuse to sub-acute, base short to long decurrent, c. 6 primary lateral veins per side, margins smooth, lamina mid-green. Inflorescence appearing in spring, smelling strongly of overripe fruit; peduncle c. 4–6 cm × 5–6 mm, swollen apically in fruit to c. 1 cm, clothed, together with the base of the spathe, by several 6–10 × 1.5–2 cm broadly linear cataphylls. Spathe 13–24 cm long; spathe limb ovate-lanceolate to oblong, 10–20 × 4–6 cm, shortly cuspidate, exterior greenish purple, interior dark brownish purple, upper part of spathe tinged green; spathe tube subcylindric, 3–4 × 1.5–2.5 cm, margins fused for ¾ their length, exterior whitish, tinged apically green and purplish brown, interior white above, deep purple below. Spadix approximately half as long as the spathe limb, 7.5–12 cm long; appendix briefly stiptate, fusiform, 4.5–10 cm × 4–7 mm, greenish purple-brown, stipe and base of appendix paler. Staminate flowers in a zone c. 15 × 4 mm, cream, slight stained purple towards the tips. Interstice 16–25 × 2–3 mm, white. Staminodes sparse, arranged mostly directly above the pistillate flowers, but with one or two scattered on the upper portion of the interstice; filaments slender, c. 4 mm long, white. Pistillate flowers in a hemispherical cluster 10–13 × 3–6 mm; ovaries bottle-shaped, c. 1.5 × 0.5 mm wide, green, style c. 0.5 × 0.15 mm, flushed purple, stigma globose, c. 0.25 mm in diam. Infructescense hemispherical, 2.5 × 1 cm, consisting of c. 30 fruits, berries pyrifrom-globose, c. 4 × 4 mm, pale silvery purple, stylar portion purple, stigmatic remains prominent, c. 1 × 0.5 mm; seeds globose, c. 3 mm in diam., pale brown, somewhat reticulate. 2n = 36 (Popova & Ceschmedjiev 1978).