Balanophora involucrata Hook.F. & Thomson

Plants dioecious. Rhizome yellowish brown, rarely reddish brown, branched or unbranched, surface densely covered with granular warts and yellowish stellate lenticels; branches urceolate, 2.5-5.5 × 1.5-2 cm. Scapes yellow to orange, 3-10 × 0.6-1 cm, base subtended by distinct rhizome sheath. Leaves connate into a single sheathlike whorl, surrounding middle of scape. Male inflorescences ovoid-spheroid, 1.4-2.4 × 1.2-2 cm. Bracts truncate with expanded liplike margin, fused side by side into a hexagonal alveolus. Male flowers: pedicellate, inserted basally in alveolus, usually 3-merous, ca. 4 mm in diam. Perianth lobes 3, rarely to 6, ovate to broadly deltoid, ca. 2 mm in diam. Synandria sessile, depressed discoid; anthers transversely dehiscent. Female inflorescence ovoid to ellipsoid. Spadicles obovate, shortly stiped, apically truncate; cuticular ridges of apical cells labyrinthlike. Female flowers: only on main axis of inflorescences. Fl. Jul-Aug.

It grows in forests along streams. In southern China it grows between 2,300-3,600 m above sea level.

The plant gathered in autumn and dried and pulverized is sprinkled on hard-boiled eggs. It is claimed to help with irregular heart beats.