Shrubs evergreen, dioecious, 0.3-1 m tall. Branchlets spreading, glabrous, unarmed. Buds ovoid to oblong-ovoid, 3-6 mm, apex acute to shortly acuminate; scales herbaceous, glabrous. Leaves 2-5-clustered at branchlet apex; petiole 0.5-1.5 cm, glandular hairy; leaf blade obovate-elliptic to broadly elliptic, 2-5 × 1.5-3 cm, leathery, glabrous, prominently 3-veined, base cuneate, margin unlobed or 3-lobed; lobes (or leaf blade) coarsely crenate-dentate at distal margin, apex obtuse or acute. Male racemes erect, 2-4(-6) cm, 5-18-flowered, female ones often axillary, 2-3 cm, 2-3(-7) flowered; rachis and pedicels pubescent and stalked glandular, glabrescent; bracts elliptic to broadly so, 7-9 mm, glabrous or margin sparsely ciliate, 1-veined. Calyx greenish white or yellowish green, glabrous; tube pelviform, 2-4 mm; lobes broadly ovate to obovate-oblong, 2.5-4 mm. Petals cuneate-spatulate to obovate, ca. 1/2 as long as calyx lobes. Stamens subequaling petals. Ovary glabrous. Style 2-lobed. Fruit purple, ellipsoid, rarely subglobose, 0.8-1.1 × 0.6-0.8 cm, glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

* Deciduous and mixed forests, ravine forests, shady and moist places on mountain slopes, cliffs, rocks, roadsides; 900-2700 m. N Guizhou, SW Hubei, SW Hunan, Sichuan, NW Yunnan.