Dracontium ulei K.Krause

Tuber hemispherical or rarely rounded, 6-12cm diam., 6-9cm thick, flat above, rounded, white to brown below, 8-20cm below ground level; tubercles few, rounded or cylindrically elongated, 0.5-1 × 1- 1.5cm, borne around the periphery of tuber; roots white, sometimes tinged pink above the tuber, to 2.5mm diam.; cataphylls 1 (concealed from view soon after leaf development), 10-20cm long, 1-2cm wide, light brown, reaching or surpassing ground level. Leaves solitary; petioles 1-1.2m long above ground, 2-4cm diam. at midpoint, dark green tinged brown, contrastingly mottled with dirty white or pale green blotches and forming a reptilian pattern, usually smooth in upper half and with irregular protuberances in lower half; juvenile blade sagittate, or sagittately lobed; mature blades ascending to 45o to the petiole (often), 0.8-1m diam., papyraceous, rarely fenestrate, never variegated, with abundant raphide cells and often dark markings, glossy and medium green above, glossy and dark green below; middle division twice trichotomously branched, 50- 60 × 50-55cm, with terminal subdivision consisting of 3 sections, with each basal subdivision consisting of many segments; lateral divisions twice dichotomously branched, 50-65 × 55-60cm, with terminal subdivision consisting of 2 sections, with basal subdivision consisting of many segments; terminal and subterminal sections free; leaf segments often entire, broadly oblanceolate, more than 5 cm wide on each side of the major ribs, oblanceolate, mostly free from each other in each division, often with contrastingly smaller rounded or triangular segments alternating with larger segments; apices acuminate; ultimate segments 10-15cm long, often free from penultimate segments; other segments 3-8cm long; penultimate segments free from subterminal sections; medial segments free from basal subdivisions; basal segments present, free from each other; rachises patterned distinct from petiole, pale green, smooth; tertiary veins obscure above and weakly raised below; bracteoles 2 or 3, 8-20 × 1-2 cm, pink, the longest one ± as long as the peduncle, reaching the spathe. Inflorescence solitary,appearing before new leaf; peduncle 8-20cm long above ground, 0.6-0.8cm diam. at midpoint, often almost completely subterranean, scarcely mottled, whitish tinged pink, smooth; spathe 6-10cm long, 3-4cm wide, non-cymbiform, constricted at a certain point and differentiated into a proximal tube and a distal lamina (blade), cucullate, arching 45o-90o, apex acuminate; 4-6 × 3-4cm at widest point; lamina shorter than the tube; inner surface covered with dense, translucent scales to 1mm long, violet-purple, with translucent area obscure; outer surface maroon tinged brown, matte; margins entire, broadly overlapping in the lower two-thirds; veins obscure inside and outside, similar to the spathe in color; spadix hidden, stipitate, cylindric, brown-purple, 3- 4cm long, 1.2-1.4cm diam. at anthesis, never with appendages at apex; stipe 0.4-0.5cm long, 0.5cm diam. at anthesis. Flower tepals 4 to 6, 2-3mm long, 1-1.5mm wide, light brown; stamens 4 to 6; filaments 1.5-4mm long; anthers 0.8 mm long (elliptic), completely exserted; ovary incompletely 3- or 4-locular, white; stigma 3- or 4-lobed; style 1-1.5mm long above tepals, brownish purple, persistent. Infructescence with spadix 6-7(-10)cm long, 1.5-2(- 3)cm diam. in fruit; berries 2-seeded, young berries 0.4-0.5cm diam., 0.5-0.7cm thick, obliquely obovoid, apically subtruncate; young berries medium green; mature berries color unknown, with abundant raphide cells; seeds 0.4-0.5cm diam., reniform, reddish brown, laterally raised, smooth; dorsal ridges obscure.