Japan Flora: Annual, often slightly soft-pubescent while young, later glabrescent; stems 80-150 cm. long, erect, coarse; leaves linear-lanceolate to rhombic-ovate， 7-20 cm. long, 2-7 cm. wide，acute or subacute, short-mucronate, cuneate at base, often variously colored and blotched with red and yellow, the petioles 3-10 cm. long; spike axillary, globose, densely flowered, pale green3 the bracts narrowly ovate, membranous, awn-tipped, slightly shorter than the perianth; perianth-segments 3, broadly lanceolate, short-awned, about 3 mm. long; fruit about 2/3 as long as tfie perianth. Aug.-Oct.

Widely cultivated in our gardens. Tropical Asia.