Shrubs climbing, to 3 m tall. Branchlets grayish brown, gray or yellowish gray tomentose, gradually glabrescent, with sparse, minute prickles. Leaves simple; petiole (1–)2–3 cm, tomentose, with sparse, minute prickles; stipules free, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 7–9(–25) mm, soft hairy, margin and apex deeply laciniate, lobes linear; blades narrowly ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 7–12 × 4–7 cm, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, brownish yellow, prominently raised abaxially, abaxially densely gray or yellowish white tomentose, adaxially villous along veins, base truncate to shallowly cordate, margin often lobed, with irregular rough sharp teeth, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, cymose panicles, 12–24 cm; rachis and pedicels tomentose; bracts lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 5–7(–25) mm, apex and margin deeply lobed; lobes linear, soft hairy. Pedicel to 1.2 cm. Flowers less than 1 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially tomentose, gradually glabrescent; tube pelviform; sepals ovate, 6–7 × 3–5 mm, apex acuminate, outer sepals shallowly lobed, margin scarious, persistently tomentose. Petals white, obovate, 3–4 × 2.5–3.5 mm, shorter than sepals, puberulous, base clawed. Stamens many, nearly as long as petals; filaments linear. Pistils 10–35, slightly longer than stamens, glabrous. Aggregate fruit dark red, subglobose, glabrous; pyrenes rugulose. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Forests, mountainous areas, montane valleys, ravines, roadsides, fallow fields; 500--2000 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Thailand].