Cephalanthera longifolia (Linnaeus) Fritsch, Oesterr. Bot. Z. 38: 81. 1888. 头蕊兰 tou rui lan Serapias helleborine Linnaeus subsp. longifolia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 950. 1753; Cephalanthera acuminata Lindley; C. ensifolia (Swartz) Richard var. acuminata (Lindley) Tang & F. T. Wang; C. mairei Schlechter; C. thomsonii H. G. Reichenbach. 

 Plants leafy, autotrophic, 20–50 cm tall. Stem slender to somewhat robust, with 3–5 loosely clasping basal sheaths, 4–7- leaved. Leaves elliptic, lanceolate, or oblong-lanceolate, 4–16 ×0.5–3 cm, apex acuminate to long acuminate. Inflorescence subdensely 2–20-flowered; rachis 1.5–6 cm; floral bracts linearlanceolate to narrowly triangular, basal 1 or 2 usually foliaceous and to ca. 70 mm, distal ones 2–6 mm. Flowers weakly spreading, white, 1–1.5 cm; pedicel and ovary 6–10 mm. Sepals narrowly rhombic-elliptic or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 11–16 × 3.5–4.5 mm, 5-veined, apex acuminate or subacute. Petals subobovate, 7–8 × ca. 4 mm, 5–7-veined, apex acute or mucronate; lip 5–7 × 6–9 mm, 2-partite; hypochile saccate, enclosed within bases of lateral sepals, with a small orange patch in middle of disk; hypochile lobes erect and embracing column, subovate-triangular, 3–4 mm, apex subacute; epichile triangularcordate, 3–4 × 5–6 mm, with 3–5 orange lamellae, densely papillose toward apex, apex obtuse to acute. Column 4–6 mm, with 2 small oblong wings; anther 2–2.5 mm; stigma stalked. Capsule elliptic, 1.7–2 × 0.6–0.8 cm. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 16, 32, 34, 34 + 2B, 42. 

 Forests, thickets, along streams, open grasslands; 1000–3600 m. S Gansu, W Henan, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, S Shanxi, W Sichuan, S and SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan; N Africa, SW Asia, Europe]. 

 The extensive extra-Chinese synonymy is not cited here.