Rheum cruentum Sievers ex Pallas; R. leucorrhizum Pallas.

Herbs short, 20-35 cm tall, stout. Roots straight or bent, 2-4 cm in diam. Stem absent. Basal leaves 2-4; petiole short, 2-4.5 cm, 7-9 mm in diam., glabrous; leaf blade light green abaxially, yellow-green adaxially, reniform or orbicular, 6-14 × 8-16 cm, rarely larger, leathery, abaxially glabrous, adaxially tuberculate, basal veins 3-5, base rounded or subcordate, margin nearly entire, apex rounded. Panicle broad, from tip of rhizome, branched at middle, glabrous. Pedicel 1.5-3 mm, stout, not jointed. Flowers densely fascicled; bracteole scale-like. Tepals yellow-white, nearly fleshy, outer 3 smaller, lanceolate, 2-2.5 × ca. 1 mm; inner 3 larger, broadly elliptic to broadly ovate, ca. 3.5 × 2.5-3 mm. Stamens short. Ovary rhomboid-ellipsoid; stigma inflated. Fruit red, reniform, 1-1.2 × 1.2-1.4 cm, with longitudinal veins near margin. Seeds ovoid, ca. 5 mm wide. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Slopes, valleys; 700-2000 m. Gansu, C and W Nei Mongol, NE Xinjiang [Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Russia (W Siberia)].