Bryocles ventricosa Salisbury, Trans. Hort. Soc. London 1: 335. 1812.

Plants green, glabrous. Rhizome 0.3--1 cm thick, stout. Petiole 6--30 cm; leaf blade ovate-cordate, -orbicular, or ovate, 4--19 × 4--17 cm, glabrous, veins in 7--11 pairs, base subcordate or subtruncate, very rarely slightly cuneate, apex abruptly acute or nearly shortly caudate. Scape 60--100 cm. Raceme 10--30-flowered; bracts 1 subtending each flower, white, oblong-lanceolate, 1--2 cm, membranous. Flowers solitary, not fragrant; pedicel 7--10 mm. Perianth purple-red, funnelform, 4--6 cm. Stamens slightly longer than perianth, exserted; filaments free. Capsule cylindric, 2.5--4.5 cm × 6--7 mm, 3-angled. Fl. and fr. Jun--Sep. 2 n = 60*, ca. 102*.

Widely cultivated as an ornamental.

* Forests, grassy slopes, hillsides; 500--2400 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan.