Twining shrubs, to 7 m; branchlets with large and dense lenticels; axillary buds subulate or ovate, ca. 3 mm. Petiole 5-8 mm; leaf blade rectangular-elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 3.5-9(-11) × 1.5-4.5(-6.5) cm, papery, often slightly leathery during fruiting period, base cuneate or widely cuneate, margin shallowly serrulate or entire at base, apex acute or shortly acuminate; secondary veins 4-6 pairs. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, terminal inflorescences racemiform cymes, 2-4 cm, axillary ones small and short, 1- to several flowered, rachis very short; pedicels 2-6 mm, jointed at or below middle. Sepals oblong, ca. 1 mm, margin erose; petals approximately rectangular, 3-3.5 × ca. 1 mm. Disk shallowly lobed, lobe apex approximately truncate. Stamens slightly shorter than corolla; staminodes in female flowers 1-1.5 mm. Pistils 3-3.5 mm; ovary globose; styles 3-lobed, each lobe divided, subfiliform. Capsule subglobose, 5.5-8 mm wide; stipe 4-8 mm. Seeds broadly elliptic, 3-4 × 2-3 mm. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Oct.

The root bark of this species is used as medicine to cure tumors and injuries caused by snakes, while the bark and leaves are used as a pesticide.

● Dense forests, forest margins, thickets, slopes, roadsides; 500-1800 m, sometimes to 3100 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.