Shrubs 0.5-1 m tall, branchlets terete, with dense ferruginous stellate hairs, becoming glabrous. Branches grayish brown, verrucose, scattered lenticellate. Leaves alternate or 2-4-fascicled on short shoots; petiole short; leaf blade linear or subspatulate, 1.5-3 × 0.3-0.7 cm, leathery, both surfaces rapidly glabrescent, midvein conspicuous, base cuneate, apex obtuse. Umbels solitary or 2 or 3 together, 2- or 3-flowered; peduncle 1-3 mm; bracts ovate, ca. 1 mm, apex often 3-lobed. Calyx subglobose, 1.5-2 mm, glabrous, limb annular, 4-lobed. Mature bud 1.5-3 cm, tip ellipsoid. Corolla red, slightly curved, glabrous, lobes lanceolate, ca. 5 mm, reflexed. Filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers 2-4 mm. Stigma capitate. Berry reddish brown, ovoid, 4-5 mm in diam., granulose. Fl. Jul-Aug.

The plants are parasitic on species of Pinaceae.

Forests, mountain slopes; 900-2800 m. Anhui, Fujian, W Hubei, S Jiangxi, Sichuan, S Zhejiang [Bhutan, Japan].