Shrubs 1–3 m tall. Branchlets reddish brown to purplish brown, cylindric, robust, glabrous, with ± straight flattened curved prickles and glaucous bloom. Leaves imparipinnate, 5- or 7-foliolate, rarely 3-foliolate; petiole 2–5 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1–2 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolule and rachis pubescent, with sparse, curved minute prickles; stipules linear-lanceolate, 4–7 mm, soft hairy; blade of leaflets ovate, rhombic ovate, or broadly ovate, (2–)3–8 × 2–5 cm, abaxially pubescent or only along veins or shortly tomentose, adaxially glabrous or pubescent only along veins, base cuneate to subrounded, margin irregularly coarse serrate to incised coarsely serrate, sometimes 3-lobed on terminal leaflet, apex acute. Inflorescences terminal on lateral short branchlets, corymbose, 2.5–5 cm, several to more than 30-flowered; rachis and pedicels gray pubescent, with sparse, curved minute prickles; bracts linear, nearly as long as or slightly shorter than stipules, pubescent. Pedicel 5–10 mm. Flowers 7–10 mm in diam. Calyx abaxially gray pubescent; tube shallowly cupular; sepals spreading at anthesis, reflexed in fruit, narrowly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 4–7 × 2–3.5 mm, margin tomentose, apex acuminate to caudate. Petals pink to dark red, obovate, premorse, nearly as long as or somewhat shorter than sepals. Stamens numerous, shorter than or ca. as long as petals; filaments pinkish, linear. Pistils slightly shorter than stamens; ovary sparsely pubescent; styles glabrous. Aggregate fruit dark red or purplish black, subglobose, 5–8 mm in diam., glabrous or subglabrous; pyrenes rugose. Fl. Apr–Jun, fr. Jun–Aug. 2n = 14.

Thickets on slopes, montane valleys, ravines, river banks, roadsides; 100--3100 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].