Rhizomes white or pale creamy inside, ovate-globose, 4-5 × 2.5-3.5 cm; roots bearing tubers. Ligule ca. 1.5 mm; petiole 2-11 cm; leaf blade elliptic-lanceolate, 14--40 × 4.5--9.5 cm, pubescent, base attenuate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal on pseudostems or on separate shoots arising from rhizomes; peduncle 7-14 cm; spike ca. 15 × 7 cm; fertile bracts greenish, broadly ovate, ca. 4 cm; coma bracts pale red, oblong. Calyx white, ca. 1 cm. Corolla tube ca. 2 cm, villous at throat; lobes red, ovate, ca. 1 cm. Lateral staminodes oblong. Labellum yellowish, suborbicular; central lobe 2-cleft at apex. Filament broad; anther ca. 4 mm, base spurred. Ovary villous.

Flora of China

Used for treating amenorrhea, abdominal pain and distension due to food stagnancy, and for masses in the abdomen.

Contraindicated for use during pregnancy and for patients with menorrhagia.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 234, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.