[2] The species has been introduced to eastern Australia (New South Wales and Queensland), Alabama in the United States, Suriname, parts of the Caribbean, and various Pacific Islands.

[7] It grows in many types of habitat, including tropical jungles,[4] forests, thickets,[6] woodlands, grasslands, and sand dunes.

Within a few hours of the ingestion of a toxic amount of plant material, a victim may experience nausea, vomiting, numbness, tingling around the mouth, burning in the throat, abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhea, which leads to dehydration.

[citation needed] As the toxic syndrome progresses, rhabdomyolysis, ileus,[11] respiratory depression, hypotension, coagulopathy, haematuria, altered mental status, seizures, coma, and ascending polyneuropathy may occur.

[citation needed] Longer-term effects include peeling of the skin and prolonged vaginal bleeding in women.

One case report described a patient who accidentally ate the tubers and then experienced hair loss over her entire body, including complete baldness.

It has been used in the treatment of gout, infertility, open wounds, snakebite, ulcers, arthritis, cholera, colic, kidney problems, typhus,[7] itching, leprosy,[9] bruises, sprains, hemorrhoids, cancer, impotence, nocturnal emission,[citation needed] smallpox, sexually transmitted diseases, and many types of internal parasites.

[9][14][7] In parts of India, extracts of the rhizome are applied topically during childbirth to reduce labor pain.

[citation needed] Other uses for this plant include arrow poison in Nigeria[14] and snake repellent in India.

[7][15][16][17][18] In 1947, Queen Elizabeth II received a diamond brooch in the shape of this flower for her twenty-first birthday while traveling in Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe.

Problems during cultivation include inadequate pollination, fungal diseases such as leaf blight and tuber rot, and crop pests such as the moths Polytela gloriosa and Chrysodeixis chalcites.

[14] It is also a crop that is slow to propagate; each split tuber produces only one extra plant in a year's time.

It is in great demand for medicinal use, so it is cultivated on farms in India, but most plant material sold into the pharmaceutical trade comes from wild populations.