Japan Flora: Nearly glabrous perennial with long-creeping slender rhizomes; stems erect, simple, with a few pairs o£ leaves, the lower 2 or 3 nodes naked; leaves rather unequal in the pair, thin, ovate- oblong or oblong, 7-12 cm. long，2.5-5 cm. wide, acute, rounded at base, obtusely toothed, with scattered coarse pubes­cence above and on nerves beneath, the petioles 1.5-3 cm. long, the stipules free, membranous, rather persistent, re­curved, lanceolate, 3-4 mm. long; spikes axillary, pedunclcd, few together, the staminate in the lower axils, loosely flow­ered with many stamens，the pistillate in upper axils, few­flowered; capsules 2-valved, green, the valves subglobose, about 4 mm. across, bifid, with few callose tubercles on the surface.  Apr.-July. Woods in low mountains.

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather common. Korea, Formosa, China, and In­dia.