Plants 50--100 cm tall. Rhizome 1.5--5 × 0.8--2.5 cm. Leaves (3 or)4--6(or 7); petiole 2--5(--9.5) cm; leaf blade ovate, broadly ovate, or ovate-oblong, 9--20 × 4.5--15 cm. Peduncle 20--40 cm. Outer tepals 4 or 5(or 6), green, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 4.5--5 × 1--2 cm, basally narrowed into a short claw; inner ones yellow-green or purple-black, narrowly linear, usually 1--2 cm × 1--2.5(--3.5) mm, very rarely to 3.5--6 mm wide. Stamens 8 or 10(--12), 0.5--1.5 cm; filaments shorter than anthers; free portion of connective purple-black, transversely ellipsoid, subglobose, or shortly conical, 1--2 mm. Ovary conical-ovoid. Style short; stigma lobes 4 or 5. Capsule ovoid-globose. Fl. Apr--Jun, fr. Jul--Sep.

Forests, shady places; 500--2100 m. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Vietnam].