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Bracts 5–30 × 3–11 mm, ovate to lanceolate, acute to acuminate, margins irregularly and obscurely serrulate, rigid, becoming smaller towards base of involucre and continuous with scales on peduncle, pinkish-crimson turning brown with age.
A plant that grows attached to other trees for food. It has a stout rhizome or underground stem. There are tubers where the rhizome attaches to the host plant. The scaly flower heads only appear above the ground. They are 7 cm high
Peduncles 0–13 cm tall, glabrous to pubescent (particularly in axils of scales); scales 4–10 × 2–5 mm, ovate to lanceolate, acute, margins sometimes irregularly and obscurely serrulate, rigid, glabrous.
Male flowers 8–15 mm long; perianth segments 2–4, lanceolate, acute; stamens 2–6 in cylindrical synandrium, anthers whitish-cream.
Tuber irregularly shaped from subspherical up to 8–10 cm diameter to elongate, 5–17 × 1.3–4 cm, densely pubescent.
Infructescence 2.5–3.5 cm diameter, dull reddish-black to crimson, looking like a strawberry.
Female flowers: perianth 1–1.5 mm long; style 2–3 mm long, filiform.
Inflorescence heads 2.5–5 cm long, opening to 1.5–5.5 cm broad.
Seeds 0.75–1.5 mm long, ellipsoid, creamy.
Rhizomes 3–8 mm diameter, pubescent.
Plant to 18 cm tall.
