Shrubs or trees, evergreen, 3-10 m tall. Branchlets brownish, terete, slender, longitudinally angular, glabrous or puberulent; third year’s branchlets with small lenticels and slightly raised, narrow, deltoid leaf scars; terminal buds ovoid, small, glabrous or puberulent. Petiole purple-red, (1-)4-10 mm, abaxially transversely rugose, adaxially shallowly sulcate, glabrous or puberulent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, ovate, ovate-elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, or oblong, 4-10(-13) × 1.5-3(-5) cm, leathery, both surfaces glabrous or midvein sparsely puberulent adaxially, midvein impressed adaxially, lateral veins 7-10 pairs, raised on both surfaces, reticulate veins evident on both surfaces, base rounded or obtuse, margin undulate, crenate-serrate, rarely tips of teeth spiny, apex acuminate or acute. Inflorescences: cymes, fasciculate, axillary on second year’s branchlets; peduncle subsessile; bracts ovate-deltoid, ciliate; flowers yellow-green, 4-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1 or 2, 1-3-flowered; peduncles ca. 1 mm; pedicels ca. 2 mm; bracteoles 2, basal, ovate, ciliate; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., deeply 4-lobed, lobes ovate-deltoid, ciliate; corolla 6-7 mm in diam., petals oblong, ca. 3 × 1.5 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens ca. as long as petals, anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm; rudimentary ovary subglobose, apex rounded, minutely 4-lobed. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; pedicels 1-2 mm; bracteoles 2, basal, ovate-deltoid; calyx lobes orbicular, ciliate; petals free, ovate, ca. 2 × 1.2 mm; staminodes ca. 2/3 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, ca. 1 mm in diam., apex subtruncate, stigma thinly discoid. Fruit purple-red, subglobose or ellipsoid, 3-5 mm in diam.; persistent stigma thinly discoid, 4-lobed; persistent calyx explanate; pyrenes 4, ellipsoidal-trigonous, 2-2.5(-5) mm, 1.5(-2) mm in diam., abaxially obscurely palmately striate and sulcate, laterally striate or rugose. Fl. Feb-May, fr. Sep-Oct.

● Forests, mixed forests, shrubby areas, mountain slopes; (400-)700-2400(-3000) m. Chongqing, S Gansu (Wenxian), Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan, Yunnan.