Distribution
Austria, Belarus, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Myanmar, Nepal, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine

Europe, Siberia, Pakistan, China: Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan; Japan, Mongolia, Nepal, Myanmar

Picea forests, mountains, grassy slopes; 1400–3200 m.

Herbs 15–25(–30) cm tall. Rhizome long, slender, branched, producing adventitious roots and aerial stems at nodes; aerial stems 15–30 cm, ribbed, with a basal rosette of crowded leaves, and higher up with 1 or 2 oblong-ovate sheathing, scalelike, brownish bracts. Rosulate leaves 4–7, semievergreen; petiole ca. 2 × or ca. as long as blades; leaf blade slightly green abaxially, green adaxially, slightly shiny, orbicular to ovate, (2–)3–6 × (1.5–)2.5–5.5 cm, leathery, base sometimes subcordate, margin obscurely crenate or nearly entire, apex rounded. Rachis-inserted scale-shaped leaves 1 or 2; raceme 8–15-flowered, 6–16 cm. Pedicel 4.5–5 mm; bracts axillary, imbricate, lanceolate, membranous. Flowers spreading or rarely nodding, 1.5–2 cm in diam., widely opened, fragrant (scent of Convallaria majalis Linnaeus). Sepals ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, 3.5–5.5 mm, reflexed at tip, apex rounded. Petals incurved, pure white, orbicular-ovate, 6.5–10 × 4–6 mm, rather thick, apex obtuse. Stamens arched toward upper side of flower; filaments glabrous, anthers yellow, tubules present. Style 7.5–10 mm, deflexed at base and facing lower part of corolla, dilated at apex into a ring. Capsule (6–)7–8 mm in diam. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. unknown.