Herbs perennial, 15-43 cm high. Rhizomes deep yellow, with many yellow, fibrous roots. Stems erect, glabrous, 1 or several in a fascicle, basal nodes with 1 pair of scalelike leaves. Scalelike leaves opposite, triangular, membranous. Leaves opposite, 8-10; stipules laciniate and subulate; petiole 7-10 mm; leaf blade lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 5-11 × 1.5-3 cm, papery, glandular mucronate, basal 1/4 entire, glabrous, base cuneate, margin sharply serrate, apex acuminate; lateral veins 4-6 pairs. Spike solitary, terminal, 5-8 cm with peduncle ca. 1 cm; bracts ovate or nearly semiorbicular, margin entire, rarely 2-lobed. Flowers white. Stamens 3; connectives elongated, becoming linear, 4-6 mm, horizontally spreading or ascending, connate at base, on outside of apical part of ovary; central connective with a 2-loculed anther; lateral connectives with a 1-loculed anther each; thecae at base of connectives. Ovary green, obovoid; style absent. Drupes obovoid or subglobose, ca. 2.5 mm, subsessile. Fl. Apr, fr. May.
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