Rhizome usually forked, ca. 1 cm in diam., fleshy. Stem scandent, 2--3 m or more, rather slender. Leaves alternate or occasionally also opposite, sessile or shortly petiolate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 7--13 cm, apex long caudate with a tendril. Flowers nodding; pedicel 10--15 cm. Tepals reflexed, bright red, proximally tinged with yellow, linear-oblanceolate, 4.5--5 cm × 7--9 mm, base slightly clawed, margin much crisped. Filaments 3--4 cm; anthers ca. 1 cm. Style 2.5--3.5 cm; stigma lobes 6--7 mm. Fl. Jul--Aug. 2 n = 22, 88, 90.

The rhizomes are rich in the alkaloid colchicine.

Forests, thickets; 900--1300 m. S Yunnan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; S and tropical Africa].