Trees 9–12 m tall; branchlets, petioles, pedicels, outside base of hypanthium glabrous or densely pubescent. Branches purplish brown to reddish brown; branchlets yellowish red. Winter buds purplish red, usually glabrous or rarely hairy at scale margins. Stipules linear, margin glandular, apex acuminate. Petiole 1–2 cm, apex with 2 nectaries; leaf blade oblong-obovate, narrowly elliptic, or rarely oblong-ovate, 6–8(–12) × 3–5 cm, adaxially dark green and lustrous, base cuneate, margin doubly crenate and often mixed with simple gland-tipped teeth when young, apex acute to shortly caudate; secondary veins 6 or 7 on either side of midvein, not extending to leaf margin. Flowers usually 3 in a fascicle, 1.5–2.2 cm in diam. Pedicel 1–1.5 cm. Sepals oblong-ovate, ca. 5 mm, outside glabrous, margin loosely serrate, apex acute to obtuse. Petals white, oblong-obovate, base cuneate, margin erose near apex. Ovary glabrous. Stigma disc-shaped. Drupe yellow or red, sometimes green or purple, globose, ovoid, or conical, 3.5–5 cm in diam., to 7 cm in diam. in horticultural forms, glaucous; endocarp ovoid to oblong, rugose. Fl. Apr, fr. Jul–Aug.

Sparse forests, forest margins, thickets, scrub, along trails in mountains, stream sides in valleys, also cultivated; 200--2600 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.