Shrubs scandent, to 5 m tall. Branchlets slender, villous, with sparse, curved prickles, purplish red, with stalked glands. Leaves simple; petiole 2–3.5 cm, hirsute, purplish red, with stalked glands; stipules free, small, palmately laciniate, lobes linear, hirsute, stipitate glandular or not; blade ovate-lanceolate, 10–18 × 4–9 cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose and sparsely hirsute along veins, adaxially glabrous except hirsute or with sparse, stalked glands on veins, base deeply cordate, basal incision narrow, to 2 cm deep, basal lobes long, touching, margin irregularly sharply serrate, with shallow lobes above base, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, cymose panicles, basal branches spreading; rachis, pedicels, and abaxial surface of calyx hirsute, with dense, purplish red or blackish purple stalked glands; bracts palmate-laciniate; lobes linear, hirsute, with stalked glands. Pedicel to 1 cm. Flowers to 1 cm in diam. Calyx reddish purple; sepals narrowly triangular-lanceolate, 1–1.5 cm, apex subulate or long caudate. Petals often absent or small and reduced. Stamens many, much shorter than sepals; filaments linear; anthers purple. Pistils few, glabrous. Aggregate fruit dark red or purplish black, small, dry at maturity; pyrenes rugose. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Jul–Aug.

Forests, montane valleys; Low to medium elevations. Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan.