Plants ca. 1 m tall. Rhizomes yellow inside, elliptic or narrowly so, fleshy, aromatic; roots with fusiform tubers. Petiole equaling leaf blade; leaf blade oblong, 30--60 × 10--20 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially pubescent, base attenuate, apex narrowly caudate. Inflorescences on separate shoots arising from rhizomes, usually appearing before leaves; spike cylindric, ca. 15 × 8 cm; fertile bracts pale green, ovate, 4--5 cm; coma bracts white, tinged with red, narrowly oblong, pubescent, apex mucronate. Calyx sparsely hairy, 0.8--1.5 cm. Corolla tube funnelform, 2.3--2.5 cm, villous at throat; lobes pinkish white, oblong, ca. 1.5 cm. Lateral staminodes yellowish, obovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 cm. Labellum yellow, obovate, ca. 2.5 cm, apex emarginate. Ovary villous. Fl. Apr--Jun. 2 n = 42.

Medicinal.

Wild and cultivated. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, ?Sikkim, Sri Lanka].