Herbs perennial. Rhizomes black-brown, usually torulose, large. Stems usually 3 or 4 from rhizome, erect or ascending, 10-40 cm tall, simple or branched above, slender. Basal leaves long petiolate; petiole 4-15 cm; leaf blade ovate or narrowly ovate, 5-12 × 3-6 cm, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent, shortly ciliate at margin, base cordate, margin entire, not revolute, apex acuminate or acute. Cauline leaves shortly petiolate; leaf blade ovate, uppermost sessile, clasping; ocrea brown, tubular, 2-4 cm, membranous, apex oblique, not ciliate, Inflorescence terminal or axillary, spicate, dense or lax, 1-2 cm, interrupted at base; bracts narrowly ovate, ca. 3 mm, membranous, apex acuminate, each 2-4-flowered. Pedicels shorter than bracts, 2-2.5 mm, slender. Perianth white or pinkish, 5-parted; tepals obovate or elliptic, 3-3.5 mm. Stamens 8, exserted. Styles 3, connate at base; stigmas capitate. Achenes slightly exceeding persistent perianth, yellowish brown, shiny, broadly ellipsoid, sharply trigonous, 3.5-4 mm. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Aug.

Slopes, forests, ditches, forest margins, wet valleys; 1300-4000 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, ?Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, ?Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].