Plants dioecious. Rhizome yellowish brown, rarely reddish brown, branched or unbranched, surface densely covered with granular warts and yellowish stellate lenticels; branches urceolate, 2.5-5.5 × 1.5-2 cm. Scapes yellow to orange, 3-10 × 0.6-1 cm, base subtended by distinct rhizome sheath. Leaves connate into a single sheathlike whorl, surrounding middle of scape. Male inflorescences ovoid-spheroid, 1.4-2.4 × 1.2-2 cm. Bracts truncate with expanded liplike margin, fused side by side into a hexagonal alveolus. Male flowers: pedicellate, inserted basally in alveolus, usually 3-merous, ca. 4 mm in diam. Perianth lobes 3, rarely to 6, ovate to broadly deltoid, ca. 2 mm in diam. Synandria sessile, depressed discoid; anthers transversely dehiscent. Female inflorescence ovoid to ellipsoid. Spadicles obovate, shortly stiped, apically truncate; cuticular ridges of apical cells labyrinthlike. Female flowers: only on main axis of inflorescences. Fl. Jul-Aug.

The hosts are usually species of Rhododendron. The species is used medicinally.

Forests; 2300-3600 m. Guizhou, Henan, W Hubei, Hunan, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim].