plant unisexual; stems subglobose, obovoid or cylindric, rising 1–9 in. above the ground, 1 1/2–2 3/4 in. thick, tuberculate, glabrous, brown or brownish-green; tubercles crowded, 1 1/2–2 lin. prominent, transverse, subrhomboid-trigonous, with a leaf-scar at the apex; leaves in a tuft at the apex of the stem, 1 1/2–6 in. long, 1/6– 2/3 in. broad, spathulate-lanceolate, acute, tapering into a rather long petiole, entirely glabrous or the petiole more or less puberulous, deciduous; peduncles several to a plant, solitary in the axils of the leaves, 1/2–2 1/4 in. long, bearing a pair of bracts and 1 involucre at the apex, puberulous or velvety; bracts 4–5 1/2 lin. long, 4 1/2–10 lin. broad, suborbicular to reniform, very obtuse, apiculate, entirely glabrous or puberulous at the base, forming a cup around the involucre, green; involucre sessile, unisexual, 3–5 lin. in diam., cup-shaped, glabrous or puberulous, with 5 glands and 3 rectangular or subquadrate lobes cut to their middle into several segments; glands 1–2 lin. in their greater diam., transverse, oblong or somewhat half circular, 2-lipped from the inner margin being incurved and forming a slight pocket-like cavity, entire or minutely crenulate; capsule 4 1/2 lin. in diam., obtusely trigonous, glabrous, erect, exserted on a puberulous pedicel as long as the involucre; styles united in a column 1 1/2–2 lin. long, with spreading bifid tips 2/3–1 lin. long; seeds 2 lin. long, ovoid, pointed, smooth, pale greyish-brown. null
