Shrubs erect, to 2 m tall. Branchlets red-brown turning gray-brown to black-brown when old, slender, subterete, glabrous or subglabrous; buds brownish, ovoid, 1–3 mm, with several scales, glabrous, apex acute. Petiole 1–2 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to lanceolate, 1–2.5 × 0.5–1.5 cm, glabrous on both surfaces or puberulous in vein axils abaxially, pinnately veined, base cuneate, margin entire or 2–5-serrate, apex acute, rarely obtuse. Racemes pedunculate, umbellate, 2–4 × 2–3 cm, 9–15-flowered; pedicels 1–1.5 cm, glabrous; bracts lanceolate, glabrous, caducous. Flowers 0.7–1 cm in diam. Hypanthium broadly campanulate, glabrous abaxially. Sepals ovate-triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm, glabrous or puberulous, reflexed in fruit, apex obtuse or acute. Petals white, suborbicular, 3–4.5 mm, about as broad as long, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse or emarginate. Stamens ca. 45, longer than petals. Disk undulate annular or irregularly lobed. Styles shorter than stamens. Follicles straightly spreading, pubescent; styles terminal, divergent. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jun–Aug.

Mixed forests, grassy slopes, rocky montane regions; 700--1600 m. Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Xinjiang [Japan, Korea, Mongolia, Russia; C Asia, Europe].