Plants dioecious, yellowish orange to dark red. Rhizomes clustered into a mass; branches 2-3.5 cm in diam., densely covered with granular warts and scattered grayish white stellate lenticels. Scapes reddish orange, 2.8-8 × 0.5-1 cm. Leaves 4-12, decussate but spirally arranged apically on scape, ovate-oblong, ca. 2 × 1-1.2 cm. Male inflorescences narrowly ellipsoid, 3-7 cm. Male flowers: zygomorphic, ca. 1 cm in diam., pedicelled, each subtended by a single stout and truncate bract. Perianth lobes 4-6, reflexed; lateral lobes deltoid to ovate, apex acute; apical and lower lobes oblong, 3-4 × 2-2.5 mm, apex truncate. Synandria subdiscoid, 4-5 mm in diam.; anthers broken up into 20-60 locelli, dehiscent by short slits. Female inflorescences ellipsoid to oblong-ovoid, 2-3 × 1-2.5 cm; spadicles clavate, 1.5-2.3 mm, apical 1/2 to 2/3 ellipsoid to obovoid; cuticular ridges of apical cells short but distinct and congested. Female flowers: on basal stipe of spadicles and on main axis of inflorescence. Fl. Aug-Oct.

Dense forests; 1000-2500 m. Guangxi, Hubei, Hunan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].