Pinellia ternata (crow-dipper, "Karasubishaku")

Japanese name: カラスビシャク （烏柄杓）
Scientific name: Pinellia ternata

[Overview]
A perennial 20–40 cm tall, commonly seen in fields and similar places.
It has an oblate corm 1 cm across underground.
One or two leaves grow from the base, each consisting of 3 leaflets; the leaflets are oblong to narrowly ovate, 3–12 cm long.
The leaf margins are entire.
The leaf stalk is short.
Bulbils (mukago) form on the leaf stalk.
A spadix is borne at the tip of the flower stalk.
The appendage at the tip of the inflorescence is 6–10 cm long and stands upright like a thread.
The spadix is wrapped in a spathe that is green to tinged with purple.
There are male and female flowers, without petals; the male flowers form a group on the upper part of the spadix, and the female flowers form a group on one side of the lower part, where it is fused with the bract.
The fruit is a green berry.

[Uses]
The dried corm is called hange and is used medicinally.

[Cultivation]
Propagate from seed or bulbils (mukago); division of the corms is also possible.
For seed, wash fully ripe fruit to remove the pulp and sow immediately.
It prefers sun to partial shade and well-drained, moist, fertile soil.
For potted plants, water thoroughly when the soil surface dries; for plants in the ground, rainfall is sufficient.
Little fertilizer is needed, and none is required in particular if base fertilizer has been applied, but for potted plants a small amount of organic fertilizer may be placed on the soil in spring.
Pests include hawk moth larvae.

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