Terrestrial herbs with an underground rhizome or tuber. Plant flowering before or with the leaves. Leaf solitary, 1-4-pinnately lobed, the ultimate lobes elliptic to linear, usually petiolate, rarely decurrent. Inflorescences erect, appearing before the leaf but often persisting as it develops. Spadix with female flowers below and male above, with a constricted zone of sterile flowers between, lacking a sterile appendix. Flowers unisexual, with 4 fleshy tepals. Ovary 2-locular. Fruit a fleshy berry. Worldwide: A genus of five species in tropical and subtropical Africa, one in Zambia. Malawi: 3 taxa. |
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