Cryptocoryne albida R.Parker

Deciduous herb to 1.8 m tall. Subterranean stem a subglobose tuber, 2–6 × 4–12 cm, cream. Pseudostem 40–110 cm long, plain green or with brown mottling. Leaves 1–2; cataphylls to 20 cm long, pink and brown mottled; petiole to 60 cm long, similar in colour to the pseudostem; leaf blade radiate; leaflets 7–22, ovate, 15–25 × 2–5 cm, margins undulate, apex acuminate, ending in a red-brown thread to 7 cm long, base cuneate, sessile or subsessile, leaflets plain green, sometimes with a paler midrib, underside glaucous. Inflorescence carried below the foliage; peduncle to 10 cm long, green or red-brown; spathe tube cylindrical, 5–10 × 2–4 cm, outside green with paler stripes, inside sometimes with carmine stripes, mouth margins widely recurved and more or less red-brown stained; spathe limb horizontal, ovate, 7–12 × 4–8 cm, outside green, flushed red-brown, inside pale green, tip ending in an acuminate, slender tail 10–35 cm long, this green or brown; spadix appendix exserted from the tube, ca 10 × 1.0–1.5 cm, stout, cylindrical, apex rounded, with a fluted middle part, light green, sessile or subsessile, with bristles inserted above the fertile part; fertile zone staminate or pistillate, exceptionally bisexual, slightly conical, to 5 × 2 cm; staminate flowers loosely arranged, 2–4-androus, anthers carmine, subsessile or sessile; thecae dehiscent by a rounded or oblong pore; pistillate flowers densely arranged; ovaries bottle-shaped, green; stigma apiculate, white. Infructescence on a nodding peduncle, conical, 6–12 × 3–6 cm; fruits red-orange when ripe, sometimes with a black annulus at apex, to 10 × 6 mm, apex rounded, up to 6 seeds per berry. Seeds globose, 2–6 mm diam.