A perennial vine. Roots 1-1.5 cm thick. Stems erect, base woody. Leaves whorled; petiole 1-4 cm, slender; leaf blade ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or ovate-oblong, 4-9(-11) × 1.5-4.5 cm, veins 5-9, base subtruncate to rounded, rarely rounded-cordate or cuneate, margin slightly undulate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences cymes, 1- to several flowered; peduncle or pedicel borne on leaf midvein, 0.5-4 cm, slender; bracts narrowly lanceolate, ca. 3 mm.; perianth segments green, lanceolate, 10-15 × 2-3 mm, margin revolute; stamens purple, slightly shorter than perianth; filaments ca. 1 mm, stout; anthers 2-2.5 mm; appendages adherent, with a silky hair on either side, adaxial one ca. 2 mm. Capsule oblong, 10-14 × 4-8 mm, often 2- or 3-seeded, apex obtuse.

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, pinworm infection, head lice, body lice, pubic lice, and clothes lice.

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