An herbaceous plant with flowering stems to 80 cm tall bearing yellow flowers about 2 cm across with purple-brown spots at the base; native of W Indies and S America, and now introduced to many tropical countries and into temperate countries under greenhouse cultivation. It is naturalised in W Africa.No usage is recorded in the Region. In Trinidad an infusion of the corm is drunk for flu, oliguria and amenorrhoea (1). A resin, a fatty oil, a volatile oil and astringent substances have been reported in the corm (1).
