Shrubs 1–3 m tall. Branchlets brownish, red-brown, or gray-brown, terete, pubescent when young, later glabrescent; buds brown when young, ovoid, with several scales, pubescent when young, apex usually obtuse, rarely acute. Petiole 2–5 mm, thinly villous; leaf blade adaxially dark green, elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or obovate-oblong, 2–7 × 0.8–2.3 cm, abaxially densely thinly villous, more densely on veins, adaxially glabrous or sparsely softly hairy, base cuneate, margin sometimes with a few coarse teeth above middle, sometimes entire, apex acute or subobtuse. Corymbs terminal on short, lateral branchlets, compound, 3–7 × 4–7 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous or villous; pedicels 5–8 mm; bracts lanceolate, rarely narrowly elliptic, 2–4 mm, more densely villous abaxially, sparsely so adaxially. Flowers 5–6 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, ± thinly villous. Sepals ovate-triangular, 1–1.5 × 1–1.5 mm, erect in fruit, apex acute. Petals white, broadly obovate to suborbicular, 2–2.5 × 2–3 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex often emarginate, rarely obtuse. Stamens ca. 20, nearly equaling petals. Disk annular, with 10 thick, globular lobes. Styles slightly shorter than stamens. Follicles spreading, thinly villous; styles terminal, slightly divergent. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jul–Aug.

Mountain forests, roadside thickets, foothills, slopes; 1300--3000 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.