Cryphaea erecta Buchanan-Hamilton, Edinburgh J. Sci. 2: 11. 1825; Chloranthus officinalis Blume.

Subshrubs to 2 m tall. Stems terete, glabrous. Leaves opposite; petiole 5-13 mm; leaf blade broadly elliptic or obovate to long obovate or oblanceolate, 10-20 × 4-8 cm, rigidly papery, glandular, glabrous, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex gradually narrowed to caudate; lateral veins 5-9 pairs. Spikes terminal, dichotomously or racemosely branched, rearranged in panicles, long pedunculate; bracts triangular or ovate. Flowers white, small. Stamens 3; connectives confluent and ovoid, not elongate, apical part 3-lobed; central lobe larger, with a 2-loculed anther; lateral lobes smaller, with a 1-loculed anther each; thecae at central or apical parts of connective. Ovary ovoid. Fruit green when young, white at maturity, obovoid, ca. 5 mm. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

The authors have followed B. Verdcourt (Kew Bull. 40: 217. 1985), who rejected the name Chloranthus elatior R. Brown ex Sims as a nomen nudum, and C. elatior Link as too poorly known to be usable; the latter was based on a sterile cultivated plant and the type was destroyed in Berlin.

Valleys, ravines; 100-2000 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam]