Shrubs scandent, to 8 m tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown, slightly angled, thinly pubescent, glabrescent, with sparse, minute prickles. Leaves simple; petiole 1–2 cm, slightly puberulous, with sparse, minute prickles; stipules usually caducous, free, linear or lanceolate, 4–6 cm, margin entire or toothed; blade ovate-oblong or lanceolate, 7–11 × 3–4 cm, lateral veins 6–8 pairs, slightly raised abaxially, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent only along veins abaxially, base rounded, margin irregularly serrate, apex caudate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, terminal ones narrow cymose panicles (8–)10–15 cm, axillary ones subracemes, sometimes subcorymbose, less than 8 cm; rachis and pedicels usually glabrous, occasionally sparsely pubescent; bracts linear or lanceolate, 3–5 mm, margin entire or dentate. Pedicel 1–2 cm. Flowers ca. 1 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially glabrous; tube shallowly cupular; sepals erect in fruit, ovate, 4–6 × 2–4 mm, inner sepals tomentose marginally, margin undivided, apex shortly acuminate. Petals white, broadly elliptic or oblong, 4–5 × 2–3 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed. Stamens many; filaments slightly broadened basally, shorter than petals. Pistils ca. 10–20, shorter than stamens; ovary glabrous. Aggregate fruit red, glabrous, with few larger drupelets, enclosed in persistent calyx; pyrenes rugose. Fl. Jul–Sep, fr. Oct–Nov. 2n = 28.

Thickets, bamboo thickets, sparsely forested slopes, stream sides, roadsides; 1000--3000 m. Guizhou, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sikkim, Vietnam].