Shrubs ca. 1.5 m tall. Young branchlets puberulous, soon glabrate; old branchlets gray-white, lenticels suborbicular. Leaves scattered on young shoots, annual or biennial; petiole ca. 5 mm; leaf blade yellow-green abaxially, dark green and shiny adaxially, narrowly oblong or lanceolate, 3–8 × 0.5–2.2 cm, leathery, glabrous abaxially, lateral veins 5–6-paired, indistinct on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin flat or occasionally rugose, apex subacute, rarely acuminate. Inflorescences axillary, 1- or 2-flowered; bracts ovate, ca. 1.5 mm, margin ciliate; pedicels 4–7 mm, brown pubescent. Sepals triangular-ovate, 1–1.5 mm, margin ciliate, apex obtuse. Petals free, yellow, ca. 7 mm. Filaments 4–5 mm; anthers ca. 1 mm. Ovary brown pubescent; stipe short; placentas 3, parietal; ovules 2 or 3 per placenta. Capsule solitary, terminal, yellow, obovoid or cylindric, rarely oblong, 12–15(–20) × 6–8 mm, pubescent, dehiscing by 3 valves; placentas in middle part of valves; pericarp thin, long elliptic, not prominently horizontally striate; stipe slightly stout, 1–1.5 cm. Seeds 6–8, red, globose, 5–6 mm; funicle compressed, 2–3 mm. Fl. Feb–Apr, fr. May–Oct.

Forests, thickets, limestone areas, slopes, river sides; 500--2000 m. SW Guizhou, W Hunan, SE Yunnan.