Plants 20-70 cm tall. Rhizome short. Stem glabrous toward base, becoming pubescent above, with 2 or 3 scalelike sheaths near base. Leaves 4-7, ovate-orbicular, ovate, or elliptic-lanceolate, rarely lanceolate, upper ones narrower and lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 3-13 × 1-6 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate to long acuminate. Rachis 10-30 cm, pubescent, laxly to subdensely 3-40-flowered; floral bracts foliaceous, linear-lanceolate, lower ones exceeding flowers, becoming shorter above. Flowers usually nodding, resupinate, green or pale purple, out-crossing; pedicel and ovary 10-15 mm, yellow-brown tomentose. Dorsal sepal ovate-lanceolate, rarely elliptic, cymbiform, 6-13 × 4-5 mm, apex acuminate; lateral sepals ovate-lanceolate, oblique, 9-13 × ca. 4 mm, apex acuminate. Petals elliptic, 5.5-8 × 3-4 mm, apex acute or obtuse; lip 6-8 mm, without a mesochile; hypochile subglobose-saccate, 3-4 mm; epichile subtriangular or suboblate, ca. 3 × 3-4 mm, veins sometimes thickened near apex, with a pair of either suborbicular, erose lamellae or thickened, fleshy wartlike calli toward base, apex acute. Column 2-5 mm (excluding anther). Capsule obovoid-ellipsoid, ca. 10 mm, puberulent. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Sep. 2n = 38, 40.

Forests, grasslands, wooded slopes, streamsides; 200-3600 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Hubei, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kashmir, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe; naturalized in North America].