Shrubs or small trees, 2.5–8 m tall, usually thorny; thorns many, ca. 0.7–1.5 cm. Branchlets greenish red, terete, slender, glabrous; buds purplish brown, suborbicular, glabrous. Stipules caducous, ovate-lanceolate, ca. 8 mm, membranous, subglabrous, margin glandular serrate, apex acute-acuminate; petiole 1.8–2.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade broadly ovate, 4–6 × 3–4 cm, abaxially pubescent along veins and barbate in vein axils, later subglabrescent, adaxially sparsely pubescent, base truncate or broadly cuneate, margin sharply and doubly serrate, with 5–7 pairs of shallow lobes; lobes triangular-ovate, apex acute. Cormyb 3–4 cm in diam., 8–18-flowered: peduncle glabrous; bracts caducous, lanceolate, membranous. Pedicel 5–6 mm, glabrous. Flowers 8–10 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous. Sepals triangular, 2–3 mm, both surfaces glabrous. Petals white, suborbicular, 5–6 × 3–4 mm. Stamens 15–20. Ovary tomentose apically, 2- or 3-loculed, with 2 ovules per locule; styles 2 or 3. Pome red or orangish yellow, subglobose, 8–10 mm in diam., glabrous; sepals persistent; pyrenes 2 or 3, with concave scars on both inner lateral sides. Fl. May, Jul–Sep. 2n = 34*.

Mixed forests, shaded slopes, stream sides; 1000--3000 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan.