Subshrubs lianoid. Branchlets dark brown, cylindric, slender, glabrous, with sparse, curved prickles or nearly unarmed. Leaves imparipinnate, usually 3-foliolate, sometimes simple on flower bearing branchlets; petiole 1.5–2.5 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet ca. 1 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile or shortly petiolulate, glabrous, with sparse, minute prickles; stipules linear, small, glabrous; blade of leaflets narrowly lanceolate or oblong-elliptic to elliptic, terminal leaflet 7–14 cm, nearly 4 × as long as lateral leaflets, lateral leaflets (1.5–)2–6 × 1–2.5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, base rounded, margin inconspicuously shallowly minute serrate or nearly entire, apex acuminate. Inflorescences often terminal, 1-flowered or flowers in clusters of 2 or 3; bracts linear, minute, glabrous. Pedicel 1–1.5 cm, glabrous. Flowers 1.5–2 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially glabrous; sepals erect after anthesis, ovate-lanceolate or triangular-lanceolate, inner sepals yellowish gray tomentose at margin, apex acuminate or acute. Petals white, broadly obovate, shorter than sepals, adaxially puberulous, base shortly clawed. Stamens numerous, in many whorls, unequal in length; filaments broader. Pistils many, shorter than stamens; ovary soft hairy apically; torus shortly stalked basally. Fl. May–Jun.

Mountainous areas, forests, valleys, water courses; below 1200 m. N Guangdong, S Guangxi.