6. Lasia Lour., Fl. Cochinch. 1: 81 (1790).
By: Himanchal T. Magar & Mohan Siwakoti
Taxon Description
Evergreen rhizomatous herbs, growing in marsh or forest swamps, prickly, glabrous, thicket-forming. Stems decumbent, long creeping and stoloniferous with terminal part erect or ascending, with armed internodes. Leaves many, tightly packed at the shoot apex, petioles long, prickly, sheathing at base; leaf blade sagittate, simple or multi-lobed; primary venation pinnate, prickly on underside, secondary venation reticulate. Inflorescences borne on long, spiny peduncle. Spathe narrow, apex long attenuate, convolute, usually caducous. Spadix sessile. Flowers all bisexual; tepals 4 (–6), free. Stamens 4 (–6), filaments free, flattened, thickened at apex; anther attached basally; locules 2, cylindrical, dehiscing by circular, terminal pores. Ovary with 1 apical ovule; stigma disc like, sessile. Fruit single-seeded, faceted. Seeds large, compressed, endosperm absent.
Taxon Statistics
Two species: tropical Asia. One species in Nepal.
1. Lasia spinosa (L.) Thwaites, Enum. Pl. Zeyl. 336 (1864).
Dracontium spinosum L., Sp. Pl. 2: 967 (1753); Lasia heterophylla (Roxb.) Schott; Pothos heterophyllus Roxb.; Pothos lasia Roxb.; Pothos spinosus Buch.-Ham. ex Wall.
मोरैया Moraiya (Tharu).
Rhizomatous herbs, 1–2 m. Stems prostrate, stoloniferous, ca. 2.5 cm diam., internode with hard spines. Leaves several, petioles green, spongy, 35–120 cm; leaf blade pinnatisect into narrow segments, lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, 28–39 X 11–34 cm, green, base deeply sagitate with cuspidate lobes (lobes 22-27 cm), apex cuspidate. Peduncles slightly shorter than petioles, 20-50 cm. Spathe axillary, dark crimson outside, green inside, slender and twisted, 18–32 cm; limb convolute above and below, apex acuminate. Spadix shorter than spathe, yellowish brown, 2.5–5 cm.
Distribution: Nepal, E Himalaya, Tibetan Plateau, Assam-Burma, S Asia, E Asia and N Asia.
Altitudinal range: 300–600 m.
Ecology: River side, on the rock, Sal forest, shady wet stream.
Flowering: March–April. Fruiting: March–April.