Shrubs 1–2 m tall. Old branches purplish brown or brown, glabrous, prickly; flower bearing branchlets brownish, pubescent, with intermixed glandular hairs, with sparse, minute prickles. Leaves imparipinnate, 7–11-foliolate; petiole 2–3(–4) cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 0.6–2 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolule and rachis pubescent, with intermixed glandular hairs, with minute prickles; stipules linear or linear-lanceolate, (5–)6–8 mm, pubescent or with glandular hairs; blade of leaflets ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or rhombic-ovate, 1.5–4(–6) × 1–3(–4) cm, both surfaces soft hairy, base rounded, rarely subcordate, margin deeply incised-doubly serrate, sometimes pinnate-lobed on terminal leaflet, apex acute, or shortly acuminate on terminal leaflet. Inflorescences terminal, rarely axillary, 1–3-flowered; bracts linear to linear-lanceolate, shorter than stipules, with soft hairs or glandular hairs. Pedicel 1.5–3(–6) cm, with soft hairs and intermixed glandular hairs, with sparse, minute prickles or unarmed. Flowers to 2 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially pubescent, with intermixed glandular hairs; tube broad and short, often unarmed; sepals spreading or rarely reflexed, ovate to ovate-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, unequal, longer sepals to 1.8 cm, shorter sepals 6–7 mm, apex long acuminate or long caudate. Petals oblong, shorter than sepals. Stamens many; filaments linear. Ovary with dense grayish yellow or gray slender soft hairs. Aggregate fruit blackish red, subglobose, 1–1.2 cm in diam., densely grayish yellow or gray slender pubescent; pyrenes reniform, slightly rugulose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Aug.

Shaded slopes, river valleys, forests, grasslands; 2300--4100 m. Qinghai, W Sichuan, NE Yunnan.