Herbs 20-45 cm tall. Rhizomes creeping, dark brown, 3-6 mm in diam. Stems simple, densely glandular hairy. Leaves mostly basal; cauline leaves few. Basal leaves with petiole 2-12 cm, densely glandular hairy, base sheathlike; leaf blade cordate, 2-8 × 2.5-10 cm, palmately 3-5-lobed, both surfaces glandular hairy, base cordate, margin irregularly dentate, apex acute. Cauline leaves 2 or 3, similar to basal leaves but smaller and petiole shorter. Raceme 8-25 cm, densely glandular hairy. Flowers whitish, small; pedicel ca. 1 cm, glandular hairy. Sepals erect, ovate, ca. 1.5 × 0.8 mm, abaxially and marginally shortly glandular hairy, 3- to many veined, apex subacuminate. Petals absent. Stamens ca. 2.5 mm; filaments subulate. Carpels unequal, connate proximally; ovary shallowly subsuperior, appearing almost completely superior. Capsule 7-12 mm. Seeds few, dark brown, ellipsoid, ca. 1 mm. Fl. Apr-Nov. 2n = 14.

Moist forests, shady wet places; 1000-3800 m. SE Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, S Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Japan, N Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].