Herbs perennial, 15-50 cm high. Rhizomes procumbent, thick, short, ca. 3 mm in diam., with many yellowish brown, fibrous roots. Stems erect, 1 or several in a fascicle, evidently noded, glabrous, basal nodes with 1 pair of scalelike leaves. Scalelike leaves opposite, triangular, membranous. Leaves opposite, 4-6 on stem apex; petiole 0.8-2.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic, obovate, ovate-lanceolate, suborbicular, or broadly elliptic, sometimes ovate-elliptic or oblong, 7-15 × 3-6 cm, papery, glandular mucronate, glabrous or pubescent along veins abaxially, base cuneate, margin serrate, apex gradually angustate and caudate; lateral veins 6-8 pairs. Spikes terminal, sometimes axillary, 1-3-branched; peduncle 1-3.5 cm; bracts triangular or nearly semiorbicular, usually several toothed at apex. Flowers white. Stamens 3; connectives oblong, connivent-connate at basal part, on outside of apical part of ovary; central connective introrse, 2-3 mm, nearly as long as or slightly longer than lateral connectives, with a 2-loculed anther; lateral connectives with 1-loculed anther each; thecae at middle or apical part of connectives. Ovary ovoid; style absent; stigma thick, short. Drupes green, globose or pyriform. Fl. Apr-May (-Jul), fr. Jun-Aug. 2n = 28, 30.

Used medicinally.

Wet places in forests, valleys, ravine thickets, swamps, streamsides; 100-1800 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Japan, Russia (S Kurile Islands)]