Shrubs 2-2.5 m tall. Flowering branchlets 5-15(-20) cm, 4-6-leaved. Petiole 3-8 mm; leaf blade abaxially grayish green, lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, 3-11 × 1-4 cm, leathery, abaxially densely 8-12-rayed stellate hairy, hairs along veins with central rays, adaxially sparsely 4-6(or 7)-rayed stellate hairy, veins in 4-6 pairs, base cuneate or broadly so, margin serrulate, apex acuminate. Cymes 4.5-8 × 2.5-6 cm, 9-12-flowered; pedicels 3-12 mm. Calyx tube 3.5-4.5 × 3-4 mm, densely grayish 12-14-rayed stellate hairy; lobes lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, deltoid, or long deltoid, shorter than or subequaling tube, leathery, 1-3-veined. Petals purplish, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, 1-1.3 cm × 6-8 mm. Outer stamens 5-9 mm; filaments 2-dentate at apex, teeth ± level with or exceeding anthers; anthers stalked, oblong. Inner stamens 4-7 mm; filaments obtuse or unequally 2- or 3-lobed at apex; anthers borne near middle of filaments abaxially. Styles 3 or 4(-6), subequaling stamens. Capsule brown, hemispheric, ca. 5 mm in diam., with persistent, recurved calyx lobes. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Sep-Nov.

* Forests, thickets, mountain slopes, stream banks; 1800-3200 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan.