Subshrubs low, nearly creeping. Branchlets reddish brown, slender, villous when young, glabrescent, with sparse, minute needle-like prickles. Leaves simple; petiole reddish brown, 4–6 cm, sparsely villous, with needle-like prickles; stipules free, greenish brown, to 1 cm, palmatipartite; lobes linear, villous; blade suborbicular, 5–10 cm in diam., both surfaces villous, more densely so abaxially, sometimes with sparse, needle-like prickles along veins, base cordate, margin 3–5-lobed; lobes coarsely obtusely serrate, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescences terminal, short subracemes, few flowered, or flowers solitary in leaf axils; rachis and pedicels densely yellowish villous, with sparse, needle-like prickles; bracts greenish brown, less than 1 cm, palmatipartite; lobes linear, villous. Pedicel 1.5–2.5 cm. Flowers 2–3 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely yellowish villous and tomentose, or with sparse prickles; sepals erect after anthesis, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 1–1.4 cm × 5–8 mm, apex caudate, outer sepals irregularly laciniate above middle; lobes linear or lanceolate. Petals white or reddish, narrowly obovate, 0.9–1.3 cm × 7–10 mm, base slightly villous, shortly clawed. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments broader toward base. Pistils nearly as long as stamens, glabrous. Aggregate fruit red, subglobose, to 1 cm in diam., glabrous; pyrenes shallowly rugose. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Foothills, coniferous forests on slopes, thickets, forest margins; 2000--3000 m. S Xizang, W Yunnan.