Shrubs, evergreen, 2-3 m tall. Branches pale yellow, terete, sometimes sulcate, glabrous; spines 3-fid, 1.2-2.5 cm. Leaves sessile; leaf blade abaxially shiny, pale green, adaxially dark green or grayish white, elliptic-lanceolate, 1.2-3.2 cm × 4-9 mm, leathery, abaxially with conspicuously raised midvein, lateral and reticulate veins inconspicuous, adaxially with slightly raised midvein, lateral veins visible, reticulate veins inconspicuous, base cuneate, margin slightly revolute, slightly undulate, 2-4-spinulose-serrulate on each side, apex acute, aristate. Flowers 2-10-fascicled. Pedicels 1.1-2.2 cm; bractlets ovate, ca. 2 × 1 mm, apex acuminate. Sepals in 2 whorls; outer sepals ovate, ca. 5 × 4 mm, apex acute; inner sepals oblong-obovate, ca. 7 × 4.5 mm, rounded, obtuse. Petals obovate, ca. 7 × 4 mm, base clawed, with separate glands, apex emarginate. Stamens ca. 5 mm; anther connective prolonged, apiculate. Ovules 3 or 4. Berry purplish black, pyriform or ellipsoid, 7-9 × 5-6 mm, pruinose, style persistent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul.

Roadsides, forest margins, thickets, Tsuga forests, Rhododendron forests, bamboo groves, floodlands; 2100-5300 m. Xizang [Bhutan].