Rhizome 1--2 cm. Roots slender, stiff, usually with fusiform or oblong, tuberous part near tip. Leaves basal or nearly so, tufted; petiole 10--35 cm; leaf blade abaxially glaucous, oblong, 10--15 × 3.2--3.8 cm, pinnate-parallel veined, with 4(--6) lateral veins running from midvein, margin ± wrinkled. Scape ca. 30 cm. Inflorescence a reduced panicle, ca. 13 cm, 20--25-flowered; bracts ovate, ca. 1 cm, margin membranous. Flowers solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3; pedicel 5--11 mm, articulate near middle. Tepals purple or white, lanceolate to narrowly so, 1--1.2 cm × 1.5--2.5 mm. Filaments very short; anthers ca. 8 mm. Style ca. 9 mm. Fl. May. 2 n = 36*.

* Evergreen broad-leaved forests, bamboo forests, scrub forests, moist places in thickets; 1000--2100 m. Guangxi, SW Guizhou, SE Yunnan.