Balanophora abbreviata Blume, Enum. Pl. Javae 1: 87. 1827; Arekal & Shivam. in Curr. Sci. 44: 97. 1975. B. polyandra auct. non. Griff., 1844: Haines, Bot. Bihar Orissa 5: 806. 1924; Mooney, Suppl. Bot. Bihar Orissa 133. 1950.

Plants monoecious, 5 - 10 (- 15) cm long from the point of fusion with host root to the top of inflorescence; tubers single or several together in a mass, branching from base; single tuber obconical, narrowed at base, broad near top, 1 - 2 cm long, finely granular. Leaves 3 - 7, distichous, slightly imbricate, ovate, obtuse or emarginate at apex, 1 - 2 x 0.7 - 1.5 cm. Male flowers: 10 - 20, in 1 - 2 cm long area below the female portion of spadices, sessile or with ca 1 mm long pedicels; flowers (3 -) 4 - 5 (- 8)-merous, bisymmetric or slightly zygomorphic; tepals 1.5 - 2 mm long, if 4-merous, then the 2 lateral tepals narrow, ovate, acute and 2 median tepals wide, truncate or almost square; synandrium broadly ovoid, ca 1 x 1.5 - 2 mm, laterally compressed; anthers divided into 16 - 20 parallel loculi. Female flowers: in up to 1.5 cm long area at the apex of the main axis of ovoid, ca 1.5 x 1 cm spadices and on lower part of spadicles; carpels ovoid or ellipsoid, minute, 300 - 450 μm long; the largest flowers with 950 - 1100 μm long carpels.

Fl. & Fr. Aug. - Dec.

Distrib. India: Subtropical evergreen forests, 500 - 1000 m. West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Orissa, Karnataka and Andaman Islands.

Africa (Congo, Madagascar), Nepal, Bhutan, SW. China, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar to Malesia, up to Tahiti Islands.

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