Spathium chinense Loureiro, Fl. Cochinch. 217. 1790; Saururopsis chinensis (Loureiro) Turczaninow; S. cumingii C. de Candolle; Saururus cernuus Thunberg (1784), not Linnaeus (1753); S. loureiri Decaisne.

Herbs to more than 1 m high; rhizomes creeping, white, thick. Stems strong, basal part creeping and usually whitish, apical part erect and green. Stipular sheath 2-10 mm, ca. as long as petiole, slightly clasping; petiole 1-3 cm, glabrous; leaf blade ovate to ovate-lanceolate, (4-)10-20 × (2-)5-10 cm, papery, densely glandular, glabrous, base cordate or oblique-cordate, apex acute or acuminate; veins 5-7, basal, if 7-veined, outermost pair slender, ascending and then arched and combined; reticulate veins conspicuous. Apical leaves smaller, 2 or 3 at stem apex, usually petal-like, white at anthesis. Inflorescence an elongated, axillary or terminal raceme, (3-)12-20 (-22) cm; peduncles 0.5-4.5 cm, glabrous; rachis densely pubescent. Bract beneath each flower spatulate, basal part linear and pilose, apical part orbicular and glabrous or sparsely ciliate, small, apex rounded to acute. Filaments slightly longer than anthers. Fruit subglobose, ca. 3 mm in diam., tuberculate. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jun-Jul. 2n = 22*.

Type from Guangzhou, Guangdong.

Rhizomes and flowers used medicinally.

Wet places, ditches, meadows, riverbanks, streamsides, forests, thickets, roadsides, field margins; near sea level to 1700 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Japan (including Ryukyu Islands), Korea, Philippines, Vietnam]