Shrubs 0.5-1 m tall, branchlets and leaves with dense stellate hairs when young, becoming glabrous. Branches brownish gray, lenticellate. Leaves opposite or subopposite; petiole 5-6 mm; leaf blade ovate to ovate-oblong, 5-8 × 2-4 cm, papery, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, both surfaces brownish or ferruginous pubescent when young, glabrous when mature, base broadly cuneate, apex obtuse. Racemes solitary or 2- or 3-fascicled, axillary, sometimes at leafless nodes, 3-7-flowered; peduncle 2-3 mm, brown pubescent; bracts ovate to triangular, 0.5-1.5 mm. Calyx turbinate, 2-2.5 mm, limb annular. Mature bud tubular, tip ellipsoid, apex acute. Corolla red or greenish yellow, slightly curved, 1-2.5 cm, apical portion inflated, lobes lanceolate, 3-8 mm, reflexed. Filaments 2-3 mm; anthers 1.5-2 mm. Stigma subcapitate. Berry reddish yellow, broadly pyriform, 8-10 × ca. 3 mm, base tapering into stalk. Fl. and fr. Oct-Jan.

The plants have medicinal uses and are parasitic on a wide range of hosts, including species of Apocynaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Fagaceae, Lythraceae, Moraceae, Punicaceae, Rosaceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae, Theaceae, and Ulmaceae; rarely, they are parasitic on species of Cupressaceae and Pinaceae.

Plains, hills, mountain slopes; 100-2100(-2800) m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [Bangladesh, Bhutan, NE India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].