Common in open areas, especially in sandy soil The tuber is an important food source. Starch from the tuber is used to stiffen fabrics and the bast fibres of stem are used to make mats. The raw tubers are a good remedy for stomach ailments. Mixed with water and red clay, the plan
Details
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uses
The tuber is an important food source. Starch from the tuber is used to stiffen fabrics and the bast fibres of stem are used to make mats. The raw tubers are a good remedy for stomach ailments. Mixed with water and red clay, the plant is eaten for L.,
Erect rhizomatous herbs, rhizomes cylindric to subcylindric, 15-25 cm in diam. Leaves 1-3, 30-90 cm, 3-partite, broadly obovate, ovate or oblong ovate, segments variously pinnatifid, margins undulate; petioles 30- 90 cm long, terete, hollow, striate. Scapes longer than petiole, 10-40 flowered. Flowers pedicelled, arranged in an umbel, drooping, ca.1.75 cm across, greenish yellow. Bracts 6-12, oblong-lanceolate, recurved, striped with purple; bracteoles filiform, numerous, much longer than the bracts. Stigma petaloid, 2-fid and inflexed like an umbrella over the style. Fruits × ovoid, ca. 3 2 cm, 6-ribbed; seeds many, ovoid to ellipsoid, angular. Kuntze
native range
Tropical Africa, South and Southeast Asia and northern Australia