Plants to 1 m tall. Rhizome 2--10 × 2--3 cm. Stem scabrous. Leaves 4--6; petiole 2.5--7.5 cm; leaf blade ovate, 11--17 × 6--11 cm, adaxially sometimes with purple markings, abaxially purple or mottled with purple. Peduncle 12--60 cm. Outer tepals 5 or 6, green, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, 3.5--9 × 1.3--2 cm; inner ones yellow-green, narrowly linear, 3--8 cm × 1--5 mm. Stamens usually 15--18; filaments 3--8 mm; anthers 0.7--1.5 cm; free portion of connective 1--2 mm, apex acute. Ovary green or pale purple, globose, 1-loculed, 5- or 6-ribbed. Style short; stigma lobes 5 or 6. Capsule red at maturity, dehiscent. Seeds subglobose, wholly enveloped by red aril. Fl. May--Jun, fr. Oct--Nov.

* Evergreen forests on limestone slopes, ravine forests, mossy forests; 900--2100 m. SW Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan, SE Yunnan.