Herbs perennial. Stems ascending, to more than 35 cm × 5 mm, glabrous. Leaves sessile; leaf sheath ca. 6 mm, sparsely puberulent on side opposite leaf blade, glabrous elsewhere; leaf blade elliptic, 7--12.5 × ca. 3 cm, glabrous on both surfaces. Inflorescence nearly as long as leaves; peduncle ca. 4.5 cm, puberulent; cincinni numerous, in 6 whorls or nearly so, ca. 2 cm, puberulent with hooked hairs; involucral bracts ovate, ca. 13 × 7.5 mm, distal ones slightly smaller, puberulent; bracts membranous; pedicels ca. 4 mm at anthesis. Sepals ovate-orbicular, boat-shaped, ca. 6 mm, sparsely puberulent abaxially, often persistent. Petals white, purple spotted, ovate-orbicular, ca. 6 mm. Stamens 6, all fertile. Fruit not seen. Fl. May--Jun.

Pollia macrobracteata is related to P. hasskarlii and P. japonica, and all have 6 fertile stamens. It differs from P. japonica in having inflorescence and peduncle much shorter, and involucral bracts ovate, larger, and apically broadly acute; from P. hasskarlii in having involucral bracts larger and herbaceous, cincinni, peduncle, and pedicels longer, and roots that arise from stem nodes thicker; and from both species in having much smaller leaves with shorter leaf sheaths.

* Forests on mountain summits. SW Guangxi (Longzhou Xian).