Balanophora dioica R.Br. ex Royle, Ill. Bot. Himal. Mts. 1: 330. 1836; 2: t. 79 ('99 or 78a'). 1839; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 237. 1886. Cordyceps racemosa Berkeley in Hooker's J. Bot. Kew Gard. Misc. 6: 212, t. 8, f. 3. 1854.

Plants dioecious (inflorescences unisexual), ochre-yellow to brown or red purple, 5 - 15 (- 25) cm high from the point of fusion with host root; tubers single or several together in a lobed mass, branching or lobed from base; single tuber 0.5 - 2.5 cm wide, subspherical. Leaves 5 - 10, distichous, rarely spirally arranged, imbricate and much appressed, oblong, obtuse or emarginate at apex, sheathing at base, 1 - 2.5 x ca 1 cm. Spadices unisexual, fleshy, ellipsoid or clavate, 1.5 - 4.5 x 1 - 1.5 cm; bracts surrounding flowers linear-lanceolate. Male flowers: sessile or shortly pedicelled, actinomorphic; pedicels 5 - 9 mm long; tepals 4 or 5 (- 6), valvate in bud, patentreflexed when fully open, ovate, ca 2 x 1 mm, concave, fleshy; synandrium hemispherical, 0.5 - 1 x 1 - 1.5 mm; anthers 4 or 5, 2-loculed, conduplicate, horseshoe-shaped with 2 halves folded towards each other; locules opening longitudinally by curved slit. Female flowers: on main axis of spadices or on lower part of spadicles; spadicles 1000 - 1050 μm long, with the lower two-third cylindrical, 150 - 200 μm wide, upper one-third obovate, truncate, 420 - 470 μm wide; tepals absent; stigma flat, white, papillate with slightly protruding cells at top; cuticular ridges of cells on top part low, but conspicuous; largest flowers with pistils ca 1150 μm; carpels ellipsoid, about 440 x 200 μm. Fruits minute; seeds adherent to pericarp

Fl. & Fr. Sept. - Feb.

Distrib. India: Tropical and subtropical Himalayas, common in Meghalaya, between 500 - 2500 m. Sikkim, West Bengal, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.

Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.

Notes. Sharma (J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 26: 103 – 104, f. 1. 2002) reports this species from Delhi, having collected it from Hamdard University Campus growing on the roots of Pithecellobium dulce (Roxb.) Benth.