Amomum tsaoko is a ginger-like plant known in English by the transliterated Chinese name cao guo. It grows at high altitudes in Yunnan. Both wild and cultivated plants are used medicinally.Plants to 3 m tall, aromatic. Rhizomes gingerlike. Ligule entire, 0.8--1.2 cm, apex obtuse; petiole absent or short; leaf blade narrowly elliptic or oblong, 40--70 × 10--20 cm, glabrous, base attenuate, margin drying membranous, apex acuminate. Spikes 13--18 × ca. 5 cm, 5--30-flowered; peduncle at least 10 cm, scalelike sheaths dense, brown when dry, oblong or narrowly elliptic, 5.5--7 × 2.3--3.5 cm, leathery, apex rounded; bracts lanceolate, ca. 4 cm × 6 mm, apex acuminate; bracteoles tubular, ca. 3 cm, apex 2- or 3-toothed. Calyx equaling bracteoles, apex obtusely 3-toothed. Corolla orange-red; tube ca. 2.5 cm; lobes oblong, ca. 2 cm × 4 mm. Labellum elliptic, ca. 2.7 × 1.4 cm, apex slightly toothed. Anther ca. 1.3 cm; connective appendage 3-lobed, ca. 4 × 11 mm, central lobe quadrilateral, lateral ones narrower.