Herbs perennial, 10--45 cm tall. Rootstock with numerous fibrous roots. Stems erect, slightly swollen at nodes, simple, glabrous. Lower leaves scalelike. Upper leaves 4--18 in a terminal whorl, rarely with a second whorl, sessile or subsessile, ovate to elliptic or lanceolate, 5--17 X 1.2--10 cm, papery, glabrous, with or without black glandular stripes, base cuneate, apex short acuminate; veins 4 or 5 pairs. Umbels terminal, sessile, 6-to many flowered, rarely with few flowers in axils of scalelike leaf pair immediately below the terminal whorl. Pedicel 3--15 mm, glabrous. Calyx lobes lanceolate, glabrous or sparsely ciliate, occasionally black glandular striate, apex acuminate. Corolla yellow; tube ca. 3 mm; lobes oblong, 9--11 X 4--4.5 mm, with or without black glandular stripes, apex obtuse to round. Filaments connate basally into a ca. 2 mm high tube, free parts 3--5 mm; anthers elliptic, dorsifixed, opening by lateral slits, ca. 1.5 mm. Ovary glabrous; style ca. 8.5 mm. Capsule unknown.
Hillsides, stream edges, damp and wet places beneath forest trees. Damp areas in forests, mountain valleys and wet ravines at elevations of 500-1400 metres.