A perennia subshrub. Roots ca. 1 cm thick. Stems erect, simple, 30--70 cm, ribbed. Leaves 2-5-whorled, shortly petiolate or subsessile; leaf blade obovate- or ovate-elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 3.5-6 × 1.5-4 cm, base cuneate, apex shortly acute. Inflorescences borne in scale axils at base of stem, 1-flowered; pedicel 1-1.5 cm, articulate near or above middle; bracts scalelike, ca. 8 mm. Perianth segments pale green, ovate-lanceolate, 10-15 × 2-4 mm. Stamens purple, shorter than perianth or only slightly so; filaments 2-4 mm, stout; anthers ca. 3.5 mm; appendages adherent, adaxial one flat, broad, 5-7 mm. Capsule ovoid, 7-9 × 4-6 mm, 1- or 2-seeded.

Antitussive and anthelminthic (root)

Herbasin Chinese herb database - Radix Stemonae (Bai Bu)
Flora of China

The dried root tuber is used for treating chronic cough, cough in phthisis, whooping cough, oxyuriasis, head lice, body lice, pubic lice, and clothes lice.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 612, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.