A perennial plant growing up to 1m. Leaves are alternate, simple or compound, petiolate, sometimes very large, and usually with a sheathing base. Inflorescence is a fleshy spike or spadix subtended or commonly partially enveloped by a bract or spathe which is sometimes petaloid or brightly colored; the tiny flowers are actinomorphic, bisexual or unisexual, and are sessile or sometimes embedded in the floral axis; the perianth is nearly always absent in unisexual flowers but in bisexual flowers typically consists of 4-6 small, undifferentiated tepals that are free or connate. The androecium of a typical male flower usually consists of 2, 4, or 8 distinct or variously connate stamens that are opposite the tepals when these are present; the gynoecium of a typical female flower consists of a single compound pistil of mostly 3 but up to 15 carpels, a single style, and a superior ovary with sometimes one locule and 1-numerous parietal ovules or more frequently 3 or more locules, each with 1-numerous axile-apical to axile-basal ovules. Fruit is a berry.

Anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory, antispasmodic and anodyne (whole plant); acrid, anodyne, antibacterial, antifungal, antiphlogistic, antirheumatic, anticancer, antispasmodic, antitumor, expectorant, sedative and stomachic (root).

Plants For A Future