Glabrous perennial; rhizomes slender, creeping; stems simple or sparsely branched, 10-20 cm. long, erect, with ascending base, loosely leafy, purplish red; leaves membranous, opposite, elliptic to obovate-elliptic, sometimes nearly orbicular, 5-8 mm. long, 35-6 mm. wide, rounded at apex, narrowed to the sessile base; inflorescence erect, 3-6 cm. long, small-leafy; flowers many in a terminal spike, red-purple, about 25 mm. across, the bractc¬oles lanceolate, slightly longer than the calyx-tube; calyx-tube obconical, about 1 mm. long, the lobes 4, deltoid, acute, slightly shorter than the tube; petals 4, obovate, 1.5 mm. long, red- purple; stamens not exserted from calyx-lobes; capsules dehis¬cent, 4- or rarely 3-valvcd; styles short, the stigma capitate. May.

Kyushu (Chikuzen, Chikugo, Higo Prov.). Ryukyu, Formosa, China, and India.