Sauromatum giganteum (Araceae)
Underground part a rhizome, 5–8 × 2–5cm, producing numerous annual fusiform offsets. Petiole green, with or without numerous purple spots, 20–60cm; leaf blade ovate, cordate to hastate, 15–45 × 9–25cm, margin entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescence preceding or simultaneous with leaves; peduncle 13–17cm. Spathe convolute at base, erect, oblong-ovate, 4–8cm; limb erect or recurved, ovate, to 15cm, margin sinuous, apex acuminate. Spadix sessile or nearly so, slightly shorter than spathe, to 14cm; female zone cylindric, 1–1.5cm × ca. 8mm; ovary: basal part whitish, apical part purple, cylindric, apex truncate, 2-ovuled; stigma sessile, gray, disciform; sterile zone 2–3cm, covered by distant staminodes of different types; proximal staminodes with clavate apical part, middle ones with subulate apical part, distal ones with apical part reduced to a stump; male zone ca. 2cm × 8mm; male flowers sessile; anthers ± cream-colored, with pinkish flushes, ovoid, opening by apical pore; appendix sessile, cylindric, to 6cm, ca. 5mm in diam. at base, base slightly attenuate, apex obtuse. Fruiting zone elongate, naked, ca. 5 × 3 cm; berries crowded, violet-purple, keeled, apex acute.
This material was reprinted with permission from the Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, and Science Press, Beijing.
This material was reprinted with permission from the Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, and Science Press, Beijing.
Grasslands, field sides, streamsides, grassy slopes.
Cultivated in Guangdong, Guangxi, Jilin, and Yunnan as a medicinal plant.
This material was reprinted with permission from the Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis, and Science Press, Beijing.