Tubers vertical, cylindric; cork brown, drying wrinkled; transverse section white or light yellow, drying slightly purplish brown. Stem twining to right, densely puberulent, glabrescent, rarely glabrous. Leaves alternate basally on stem, opposite distally on stem, simple; petiole 1--6 cm; leaf blade ovate to elliptic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 5--17(--20) × 3--10(--14) cm, base slightly cordate to rounded, margin entire, apex obtuse, sharply acuminate, or caudate. Male spikes solitary or 2 or 3 together, ca. 2 cm, in axillary panicles 6--30 cm; main axis sometimes to 2 mm thick, densely and shortly pubescent; rachis straight. Male flowers: perianth greenish white, glabrous, outer lobes broadly ovate, ca. 1.2 mm, inner ones elliptic-ovate; stamens 3; staminodes 3. Female spikes to 20 cm, puberulent. Female flowers: staminodes 6. Capsule not reflexed, oblate, 1--2 cm; wings 0.7--1.7 cm wide. Seeds inserted near middle of capsule, winged all round. Fl. Sep--Jan, fr. Dec--Jan.

Evergreen broad-leaved forests, scrub, mountain slopes; 500--2200 m. Yunnan [Laos, Myanmar, Thailand].