Shrubs, deciduous, low, less than 1 m tall. Branches dark purplish red or dark black, sometimes pale yellow, sulcate; shoots pubescent; internodes 5-10 mm; spines 3-5-fid, weak, 3-11 mm. Leaves sessile; leaf blade abaxially grayish or grayish white, adaxially dark green, obovate, 5-12 × 2-5 mm, herbaceous, abaxially pruinose, base cuneate, margin entire, apex obtuse. Flowers solitary. Pedicels 4-7 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; bractlets red, ovate, ca. 2.3 × 1 mm, apex acute. Sepals in 2 whorls; outer sepals ovate, 3.5-5 × 2.5-3 mm, apex acute; inner sepals oblong-obovate, 5-6.5 × 3.5-4 mm. Petals oblong-obovate, 3.5-4 × 2-2.3 mm, base cuneate with oblong-elliptic glands, apex emarginate with 2 acute lobes. Stamens 2.5-3 mm; anther connective slightly prolonged, truncate or rounded. Ovules 3 or 4, shortly funiculate. Berry obovoid, 8-9 × ca. 6 mm; style persistent, short. Fl. Jun, fr. Oct.

● Alpine thickets, thicket-meadows; 3900-4400 m. Xizang.