Amesia mairei (Schlechter) Hu; A. schensiana (Schlechter) Hu; A. setschuanica (Ames & Schlechter) Hu; A. wilsonii (Schlechter) Hu; Arthrochilium mairei (Schlechter) Szlachetko; A. schensianum (Schlechter) Szlachetko; A. setschuanicum (Ames & Schlechter) Szlachetko; A. wilsonii (Schlechter) Szlachetko; Epipactis schensiana Schlechter; E. setschuanica Ames & Schlechter; E. wilsonii Schlechter; Helleborine mairei (Schlechter) Soó; H. schensiana (Schlechter) Soó; H. setschuanica (Ames & Schlechter) Soó; H. wilsonii (Schlechter) Soó.
Plants 30-100 cm tall. Rhizome short and inconspicuous. Stem glabrous toward base, becoming rusty pubescent above, with 2 or 3 scalelike sheaths toward base. Leaves 5-8, usually elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 7-16 × 3-8 cm, adaxially scabrous, especially so on veins, base sheathing and amplexicaul, apex shortly acuminate to acuminate. Rachis 10-20 cm, rusty pubescent, subdensely 10- to more than 20-flowered; floral bracts elliptic-lanceolate, lower ones exceeding flowers. Flowers usually nodding, resupinate; sepals and petals yellowish green tinged purple on outer surfaces, lip with a purplish brown hypochile and an orange or yellowish brown epichile; pedicel and ovary 12-15 mm, yellowish brown- or rusty pubescent. Dorsal sepal elliptic or obovate-elliptic, cymbiform, 13-17 × 4-7.5 mm, outer surfaces occasionally puberulent, apex acuminate; lateral sepals ovate-lanceolate or ovate, oblique, 15-20 × 5-9 mm, apex acuminate and mucronate. Petals narrowly elliptic or elliptic, 11-17 × 5-9 mm, apex acuminate; lip 12-16 mm, without a mesochile; hypochile cymbiform, 6-9 mm, with suberect lateral lobes 4-6 mm wide, with 2 or 3 central crestlike lamellae; hypochile lamellae separate and narrow at base, converging and becoming wider toward apex; epichile thickened, ovate-elliptic to elliptic, 5-9 × 3-6 mm, apex acute. Column 4-5 mm; anther 3-4 mm. Capsule ellipsoid, ca. 25 mm, glabrous. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Sep. 2n = 40.
Thickets, grasslands, riverbeds; 1200-3200 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, W Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal].
