Shrubs 1-3 m tall. Branchlets puberulent when young; nodal spines 3, verticillate, stout, 1-3 cm; internodes sparsely and minutely prickly or stalked glandular. Buds ovoid; scales scarious. Petiole 2-3.5 cm, puberulent or sparsely glandular hairy; leaf blade broadly ovate, 1.5-3 × 2-4 cm, puberulent, more densely so along veins, glabrescent, base subtruncate to cordate; lobes 3-5, margin coarsely obtusely serrate or doubly serrate, apex obtuse; terminal lobe subequaling or slightly longer than lateral ones. Flowers axillary, solitary or 2 or 3 in short racemes, bisexual; bracts paired, broadly ovate to ovate-triangular, 2-3 mm, 3-veined; pedicel 5-8 mm, glabrous or sparsely glandular hairy. Calyx greenish or reddish brown, pubescent and sparsely stalked glandular, rarely glabrous; tube campanulate, 5-6 mm, glabrous adaxially; lobes reflexed, erect in fruit, oblong to ligulate, 5-7 mm. Petals white, elliptic to oblong, rarely obovate, 2.5-3.5 mm. Stamens ca. 4-5 mm; anthers exserted, ovoid, apex with cupular nectary. Ovary glabrous, rarely pubescent, usually stalked glandular. Style clavate, divided for almost 1/2 its length. Fruit purple, globose to ellipsoid, 1.2-1.5 × 1-1.2 cm, usually stalked glandular. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jun-Sep.

The fruit can be made into soft drinks and wine or eaten raw.

Broad-leaved or coniferous forests, undergrowth of sparse forests on sunny slopes, forest margins, foothills, grasslands in ravines, river banks; 1000-3900 m. Gansu, SE Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, W Yunnan [Afghanistan, Bhutan, Kashmir].