Plants ca. 1 m tall. Rhizomes yellow inside, elliptic or narrowly so, fleshy, aromatic; roots with fusiform tubers. Petiole equaling leaf blade; leaf blade oblong, 30-60 × 10-20 cm, adaxially glabrous, abaxially pubescent, base attenuate, apex narrowly caudate. Inflorescences on separate shoots arising from rhizomes, usually appearing before leaves; spike cylindric, ca. 15 × 8 cm; fertile bracts pale green, ovate, 4--5 cm; coma bracts white, tinged with red, narrowly oblong, pubescent, apex mucronate. Calyx sparsely hairy, 0.8-1.5 cm. Corolla tube funnelform, 2.3--2.5 cm, villous at throat; lobes pinkish white, oblong, ca. 1.5 cm. Lateral staminodes yellowish, obovate-oblong, ca. 1.5 cm. Labellum yellow, obovate, ca. 2.5 cm, apex emarginate. Ovary villous.

Antiseptic, bactericidal, balsamic, carminative, cholagogue, fungicide, stimulant, stomachic and tonic (dried rhizome)

Flora of China
Duke's Phytochemical and Ethnobotanical Databases

The dried rhizome is used for treating pain in the chest and hypochondria, amenorrhea and abdominal pain due to blood stasis. In powder form, it is applied topically, for skin ulceration, sprains, contusions, bruises and candida infections.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 230, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.