Shrubs, deciduous, 1.5-2 m tall. Branches gray; shoots pale brown, slightly sulcate, glabrous, scarcely black verruculose; spines 3-fid, 0.5-1.5 cm, slender, flat. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade abaxially gray, adaxially dark green, oblanceolate or obovate, 0.8-3 × 0.3-1.2 cm, papery, abaxially slightly pruinose, both surfaces with obviously raised reticulate veins, base cuneate, margin entire, sometimes 2-5-spinose on each side, apex acute or obtuse. Inflorescence an umbel, 3-10-flowered, 2-3 cm including peduncles 3-10 mm, often base with 1 or several fascicled flowers; bracts triangular-ovate, ca. 1 mm. Pedicels 5-12 mm, slender. Sepals in 3 whorls; outer sepals oblong-triangular, ca. 2.5 × 1.5 mm, apex acute; median sepals oblong-ovate, ca. 4 × 2 mm, apex subobtuse; inner sepals elliptic, ca. 5 × 2.5 mm. Petals obovate, ca. 4.5 × 3 mm, base clawed, with approximate obovate glands, apex emarginate, lobes acute. Stamens ca. 2.5 mm; anther connective slightly prolonged, truncate. Ovules 4, funiculate; funicles ca. as long as ovules. Berry shiny, red, oblong-ellipsoid or oblong-ovoid, 11-13 × 3-4.5 mm, contracted at middle, not pruinose, apex usually bent, style not persistent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.

● Forests, thickets; 3000-4000 m. Xizang.