Trees 4–8 m tall. Bark gray. Branchlets grayish brown, glabrous; young branchlets green, hirtellous, soon glabrescent. Winter buds ovoid to long ovoid, glabrous. Stipules narrowly lorate, slightly shorter than petiole, soon caducous, margin glandular serrate. Petiole 6–12 mm, hirtellous to glabrous, glabrescent, apex with 2 orbicular nectaries; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, obovate-oblong, or ovate-oblong, 3.5–6 × 2–3.5 cm, abaxially green, hirtellous when young, and more densely so along veins, adaxially dark green and pilose, both surfaces glabrescent, base rounded to cuneate, margin acutely serrate and sometimes biserrate and teeth with a capitate apical gland, apex abruptly acute to acuminate; secondary veins 7–14 on either side of midvein. Inflorescences subcorymbose-racemose or long racemose, 3.5–7 cm, 3–9-flowered; involucral bracts brown, elliptic, spatulate-oblong, or obovate-oblong, 3.5–12 mm, abaxially glabrous or pilose, adaxially pilose, both surfaces glabrescent, margin glandular serrate, apex rounded; bracts brown to greenish, ovate to obovate, 2–3 mm in diam., membranous to leathery, margin glandular serrate. Flowers ca. 1.5 cm in diam., opening at same time as leaves or slightly before. Pedicel 0.3–2 cm, hirtellous. Hypanthium tubular-campanulate, 3–5 × 3–4 mm, outside densely hirtellous. Sepals ovate, nearly 1/2 or less as long as hypanthium, apex obtuse. Petals white, ovate to suborbicular, apex subundulate to emarginate. Stamens 33–45, nearly as long as petals. Style basally pilose. Drupe purplish red, ellipsoid to ovoid, 7–10 × 5–8 mm; endocarp ± sculptured. Fl. Mar–May, fr. May–Jun.

Forests in ravines, mountain slopes, also cultivated; 1900--2600 m. Guangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.