Sauromatum Schott

Terrestrial acaulescent herbs with subglobose tubers, seasonally dying back and dormant. Leaf solitary, subtended by several basal cataphylls; petiole with inconspicuous sheath, lacking apical pulvinus; blade deeply pedately-lobed; venation reticulate, primary lateral veins of lobes forming inframarginal veins. Inflorescence solitary, appearing before leaf. Spathe borne at ground-level, erect, margins connate basally forming a tube, somewhat inflated at extreme base, upper expanded limb much longer, narrowly oblong-lanceolate. Spadix with short ± cylindric basal pistillate part, followed by much longer sterile zone, naked apart from filiform to clavate projections at base; central staminate part short and cylindric, followed by slender, ± cylindric, smooth, sterile, terminal appendix. Flowers unisexual, lacking perigon, densely congested. Stamens free, ± sessile; anthers dehiscing by oblique apical pores; connective slender. Ovary unilocular; ovules orthotropous, 1–4, basal; stigma subsessile, capitate. Berries purple to red, densely congested in subglobose infructescence. Seeds with abundant endosperm.