Arisaema aequinoctiale ("Higanmamushigusa")

Japanese name: ヒガンマムシグサ （彼岸蝮草）
Scientific name: Arisaema aequinoctiale

[Overview]
A perennial up to 90 cm tall, found in evergreen broadleaf forests near the coast.
It has an oblate corm underground.
The sheathing leaves and the lower part of the petioles form a pseudostem.
There are 2 leaves, each with 7–13 leaflets arranged pedately (like a bird's foot).
The leaflets are lanceolate to elliptic with pointed tips, and often have white blotches along the midrib.
The leaf margins are entire, but sometimes toothed.
The inflorescence grows ahead of the leaves; the inflorescence stalk is erect, taller than the petioles at flowering, and bears a spadix at the tip.
The inflorescence stalk is about as long as the pseudostem in male plants and about 1.5 times as long in female plants.
The appendage at the tip of the inflorescence is club-shaped, stalked and erect, slightly swollen at the tip.
The spadix is enclosed in a spathe.
The spathe is purplish brown to yellowish brown, rarely yellowish green, with white longitudinal stripes; the limb is triangular-ovate to narrowly obovate with a pointed tip.
The mouth margin of the spathe spreads slightly like ears (a collar), and the opening is narrow, less than 8 mm wide, but open.
The fruit is an ovoid berry that ripens red.
The plant is dioecious; young plants are male and change to female as they grow.

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