Dracontium asperispathum G.H.Zhu & Croat

Tuber hemispherical, 5-15cm diam., 4-8cm thick, flat or slightly sunken above, rounded and white to brown below, 5-20cm below ground level. Tubercles few, rounded, 0.8-1 cm diam., borne around the periphery of tuber; roots 2.5-3mm diam.; cataphylls 1 to 3, 6-22 × 1.5-3cm, pinkish or light brown, reaching or surpassing ground level. Leaves solitary; petioles 1-2.5m long, 2.5-4cm diam. at midpoint, dark green or medium green tinged brown, contrastingly mottled with dirty white or pale green blotches and forming a reptilian pattern, smooth or sometimes with spiny projections; juvenile blade sagittate, or sagittately lobed; mature blades spreading horizontally, 1-1.4m diam., subcoriaceous, sometimes fenestrate, never variegated, without raphide cells or dark markings, semiglossy and dark green above, matte and medium green below; middle division twice trichotomously branched, 50-65 × 50-60cm, with terminal subdivision consisting of three sections, with each basal subdivision consisting of many segments; lateral divisions twice dichotomously branched, 47-60 × 45-55cm, with terminal subdivision consisting of two sections, with basal subdivision consisting of many segments; terminal and subterminal sections free, each usually consisting of a single segment or each consisting of a few segments; broadly oblanceolate, more than 5cm wide on each side of the major ribs, ovate-obllong or elliptic or lanceolate, mostly free from each other in each division, often without contrastingly smaller rounded or triangular segments apices acuminate, or rarely acute: ultimate segments 20-32cm long free from penultimate segmtents; other segments 9-20cm long; penultimate segments free from subterminal sections; medial segments often free from basal subdivisions: basal segments present, free front each other; rachises patterned distinct from petiole, pale green, smooth; tertiary veins prominent above and weakly raised below; bracteoles 1 to 4, 4-24cm long, 1.5-3cm wide, light brown, the longest one much shorter than the peduncle, confined to the base. Inflorescence solitary, appearing before or after new leaf; peduncle (56-)100-145cm long above ground, 1-2.5cm diam. at midpoint, more than half as long as the petiole or sometimes as long as or longer than the petiole, mottled similar to petiole but deeper in color, dark green, smooth in upper half or with irregular protuberances in lower half or spiny projections; spathe 28-46cm long, 4-6cm wide, non-cymbiform, constricted at a certain point and differentiated into a proximal tube and a distal lamina (blade), erect or slightly arching, apex acuminate; 8-12cm long, 4-6cm wide at widest point; lamina 3 to 5 times longer than the tube; inner surface covered with dense, translucent scales 1-2mm long, olive-brown or red-purple, with translucent area obvious, 8-15cm high, 1.5-3 times longer than spadix; outer surface green or green tinged brown, matte; margins entire, broadly overlapping at the base; veins obscure inside and raised outside, similar to the spathe in color; spadix hidden, stipitate, cylindric, brown or purple or dark purple, 3.5-6 × 0.7-1cm at anthesis, never with appendages at apex; stipe 0.5-1 × 0.5-0.8cm at anthesis, light brown; flower tepals (4)5 or 6(7), 0.5-2.5 × 1-2mm, purple or dark purple; stamens 5 to 7; filaments 0.3-2mm long; anthers 0.3-0.5mm long, hidden or slightly exserted; ovary 3-locular, pale green or white; stigma unlobed; style 0.5-1.5mm long above tepals, purple or green, persistent. Infructescence with spadix 8-16 × 2-4cm in fruit; berries 0.7-0.8 × 0.7-1cm, 1- or 2-seeded, obliquely obovoid, apically rounded or subtruncate; young berries medium green; mature berry orange, without reddish dots and raphide cells; seeds 0.6-0.8cm diam., rounded, reddish brown, laterally flattened; dorsal ridges obvious, 3, often strongly interrupted, with the central ridge contrastingly raised, more than 1mm thick, 0.1-0.2mm high, warty along ridges.