Arisaema elephas Buchet

Flowering from June to July; fruiting in August.

Arisaema elephas is close relative of Arisaema parvum, but differs from the latter in spathe larger, tube 3-5 cm (vs. 1.5-3.5 cm) long.

Arisaema elephas is occurring in Gansu, Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan of China, Bhutan, Myanmar.

Tuber subglobose, 2-5 cm in diameter. Cataphylls usually 2, reddish brown, to 13 cm long, acute. Leaf 1. Petiole green, often verrucose. 20-30 cm long, base 2 cm thick. Leaf blade trifoliolate, leaflets green with cristate margins; terminal leaflet, obovate to obcordate, apex abrupt acute, to base narrowly cuneate, sessile, 5-10 cm long, 6-13 cm wide; lateral leaflets oblique oblong or ovate, 7-14 cm long, 5-10 cm wide, acute, base broadly cuneate. Spathe purple with green or whitish stripes; tube cylindric, 3-5 cm long, 2-2.5 cm wide, throat margins oblique truncate, neither recurved nor auriculate; limb dark purple, oblong, apex abrupt acuminate, incurved or suberect. Peduncle green, verrucose, 11-15 cm long. Spadix unisexual. Male spadix; male portion cylindric, 3-1.1 cm thick, synandria stipitate, stipe reddish, ca. 2-3 mm long, anthers 2-5, obovate, yellow, dehiscing by a horse-shoe-shaped slit; appendix sessile, to 20 cm long in total, tortuous but not hanging, lower 4-5 cm whitish, cylindric, 8 mm thick, to base narrowed, base not truncate, abrupt attenuate to male portion, above basal 4-5 cm purplish to dark purple thinned in to flagellum. Female spadix: female portion cylindric, 2-1.2 cm, ovaries green, oblong-ovate, style short, green; stigma white to purple, pilose; appendix ca. 16 cm long, sigmoid, lower part white or pale purple, base abrupt narrowed into a purple stipe 8-8 mm. Berries red, oblong, seeds 5-8, ovate, pale brown.

Growing in coniferous forest, bamboo forests, meadows, mossy rocks; 1800-4000 m.