Typhonium trilobatum (L.) Schott

Underground part a short, tuberous rhizome, subglobose or subcylindric, producing few annual offsets or splitting up. Petiole green or variously flushed with purple, 25-40 cm; leaf blade cordate-ovate in outline, usually deeply 3-lobed, rarely 5-lobed; central lobe ovate, 10-15 × 6-11 cm, acuminate, sometimes mucronate; lateral lobes 8-13 cm. Inflorescence appearing after leaves; peduncle 5-10 cm, elongating in fruit. Spathe convolute at base, outside green, inside green, to 30 cm, ovoid or ellipsoid, 2.5-3.5 × 1-1.5 cm, constricted at apex; limb spreading, outside green, inside dark purple to reddish purple, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 15 × 5-8 cm, apex acuminate. Spadix shorter than spathe; female zone slightly conic, 7-10 mm; ovary yellowish green; stigma sessile, dark or mid-purple, disciform; sterile zone 2-3 cm, proximal half densely covered with staminodes, distal half naked; staminodes strongly curled but mostly directed downward and covering most of female zone, filiform, 7-12 mm; male zone 1.5-2 cm; stamens pink; appendix shortly stipitate, glossy purple or reddish, narrowly conic, 5-12 cm × 4-7 mm, base truncate, apex acute or subacute. Fruiting zone with spathe remaining; berries at first green with purple spots, white when mature, ellipsoid, 1-or 2-seeded. Fl. May-Jul.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in shady, waste places. It grows in wetland. It grows in the lowland. It grows up to 700 m above sea level. In Yunnan.

The dried sliced corms are eaten after cooking. They need drying to remove the acrid taste. The tender leaves are boiled and eaten. They are also used to make pickles. The leaf stalk and the spadix are cooked and eaten.

Plants can be grown from seeds.