Herbs 50-70 cm tall. Roots black-brown, straight. Stem erect, brown-red, hollow, ca. 1 cm in diam., glabrous. Basal leaves 2-5; petiole usually purple-red, short, 4-9 cm, stout, compressed or compressed-terete, glabrous; leaf blade cordate or broadly ovate, 10-20 cm wide, leathery or nearly so, glabrous, palmate veins 3-5(-7), middle one very stout, base subcordate, margin very sinuolate, apex obtuse. Stem leaves 1 or 2(or 3); ocrea dark brown, short, to 1.5 cm, glabrous. Panicle usually once branched, rarely branched again at basal branches. Pedicel longer than flowers, jointed below middle. Flowers fascicled. Tepals 6, inner 3 larger, elliptic to narrowly elliptic, 1.5-2 mm. Stamens equal to perianth; anthers oblong. Style very short; stigma muricate. Fruit ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid, rarely ovoid-ellipsoid, ca. 1.2 cm × 8.5-9.5 mm; wings light brown, with longitudinal veins near margin. Seeds dark brown, ovoid-ellipsoid. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Aug.

* Slopes, grasslands; 1300-2000 m. Gansu, Nei Mongol, Ningxia [?Mongolia].