Arisaema decipiens Schott

 Arisaema decipiens Schott, Oesterr. Bot. Wochenbl. 7: 373 (1857).

Arisaema decipiens Schott; Photos Hoang Thanh Son

Vietnamese name: 

Nam tinh núi cao

Chinese name: 

雪里见 xue li jian

English name:

Latin Name:  

Arisaema decipiens Schott 

Synonym Name: 

Arisaema guixiense S.Y.Liu; Arisaema rhizomatum C.E.C.Fisch.; Arisaema rhizomatum var. nudum C.E.C.Fisch.; Arisaema rhizomatum var. viride C.E.C Fisch.

Family: 

Araceae 

Description: 

Rhizome cylindric, to 9 × 2.5cm. Cataphylls 3 or 4, yellowish purple with dark brown or whitish spots, 2–15cm. Leaves 2; petiole greenish or reddish with dark green or dark purple spots, 15–90cm; leaf blade pedate, palmate; leaflets (3–)5–7, petiolulate, greenish and sometimes with purple spots abaxially, dark green adaxially, narrowly oblong to elliptic, base cuneate, apex acuminate; central leaflet with petiolule developed to 5 cm, blade 8–18 × 3–8cm; outermost leaflets 5–6 × 1.5–2cm. Spathe green, usually with dark purple dots; tube cylindric, white toward base, 4–6 × 1.5–2cm, throat obliquely truncate, slightly outcurved; limb deep green, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 4–9.5 × 3–3.5cm, apex acuminate and caudate, tail 6–10cm, curved forward. Spadix unisexual; female zone conic, 1.5–2cm, 7–13mm in diam. at base; ovary green, bottle-shaped; stigma sessile, purple; male zone 2–2.5cm; synandria lax; anthers 2 or 3; thecae dehiscing by lateral slits. Appendix erect, green, usually with dark purple dots, terete, 5–7 × ca. 0.7cm, rugose or echinate, base stipitate, apex rounded. Berries red. Seeds 1–3, obovoid, ca. 5mm.

Flower season: 

Sep–Jan.

Flowering August to September and fruiting from September to October.

Distribution: 

Found in Assam, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Tibet and Vietnam 

Ecological: 

Evergreen forests, mossy forests, thickets, bamboo thickets, on and between rocks; at an elevation of 600-1600 m.

Chemical:  A piperidine alkaloid and three known tetranortriterpenoids were isolated from the methanol extracts of the rhizomes of Arisaema decipiens Schott (Araceae) and their chemical structures were identified as (−)-(2R*,3S*,6S*)-N,2-dimethyl-3-hydroxy-6-(9-phenylnonyl) piperidine (1), 6-deacetylnimbin (2), 28-deoxonimbolide (3) and nimbin (4)

Toxic parts: 

Entire plant esp. roots, leaves

Reference: 

- theplantlist.org

- efloras.org

- ipni.org

- plantsoftheworldonline.org

- earth.com

- Zhao, Fu-wei et al. “A piperidine alkaloid and limonoids from Arisaema decipiens, a traditional antitumor herb used by the dong people.” Archives of Pharmacal Research 33 (2010): 1735-1739.