Japan Flora: Stout glabrous reddish herb 5-10 cm. high; rhizomes irregularly globose, lobed, pale brown, 2-3 cm. across, with raised whitish lenticels; scapes terete, stout3 erect, few-scaled; scales suberect, fleshy, reddish, broadly ovate to oblong, entire; spikes terminal, solitary, stout, narrowly ovoid to ovoid, 3-6 cm. long, 2-3 cm. wide, blood-red; pistillate flowers minute, fleshy, with minute ovoid-globose bodies between them; ovary stipitate, ellipsoidal, small, the style linear. Oct.-Dec. On roots of evergreen trees, especially Symplocos;

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu. Amami-Oshima.