Paris dahurica Fischer ex Turczaninow; P. hexaphylla Chamisso; P. hexaphylla var. manshurica (Komarov) Voroschilov; P. hexaphylla f. purpurea Miyabe & Tatewaki; P. manshurica Komarov; P. obovata Ledebour; P. quadrifolia Linnaeus var. dahurica (Fischer ex Turczaninow) Franchet; P. quadrifolia var. hexaphylla (Chamisso) B. Fedtschenko; P. quadrifolia var. obovata (Ledebour) Regel & Tiling; P. verticillata subsp. manshurica (Komarov) Kitagawa; P. verticillata var. manshurica (Komarov) H. Hara; P. verticillata var. obovata (Ledebour) H. Hara; P. verticillata f. purpurea (Miyabe & Tatewaki) Honda.

Plants 25--60 cm tall. Rhizome slender, 3--5 mm thick. Leaves (5 or)6--8(or 9); petiole very short; leaf blade lanceolate, narrowly oblong, oblanceolate, or obovate-oblanceolate, (4--)7--15 × 1.5--5 cm, base cuneate. Peduncle 4.5--12 cm. Outer tepals usually 4(or 5), green, oblong-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 2--5.5 × 1--3 cm; inner ones yellow-green, 1--3 cm × 1--2 mm. Stamens 8(--10); filaments 5--8 mm; anthers 0.7--1.4 cm; free portion of connective 5--8(--10) mm. Ovary purple, subglobose, 4(or 5)-loculed. Stigma lobes 4 or 5, long. Berry purple-black, globose, ca. 1 cm in diam. Seeds without aril. Fl. May--Jun, fr. Jul--Sep. 2 n = 10, 15, 20*.

Forests, thickets, grassy and shady places, hillsides along ravines; 1100--3600 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Shaanxi, Shanxi, NW Sichuan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia (Siberia)].