Shrubs, 1-3 m tall. Old branches deep brown, red-brown, or gray-brown; branches of current year gray-green or red-brown. Leaves sessile, lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or oblong, 2-4(-6) × 0.5-1 mm, base slightly enlarged or not, margin narrowly membranous, apex obtuse or acute; green branchlets often in leaf axils, with dense leaflets. Flowers blooming 2 times per year, forming two types of inflorescences. Racemes in spring lateral on branches of previous year, with many imbricate scales at base; bracts elliptic or obovate, 3-5 × 3-3.5 mm, apex obtuse, base cuneate; pedicels 1-1.5 mm; sepals lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, slightly shorter than petals; ovary conic, ca. 3 mm; capsule narrowly conic, ca. 1 cm. Large panicles terminal on branches of current year, 14-34 cm, dense before anthesis, lax after anthesis; bracts ovate-lanceolate or narrowly ovate, 4-6 mm, margin broadly membranous, apex usually abruptly elevated, rarely acuminate or caudate-acuminate; flowers 4-6 mm; pedicels 1-2 mm, shorter than calyx; sepals ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, 3-4 mm, slightly shorter than petals, margin broadly membranous, apex acuminate, incurved; petals purplish red or pink, obovate or obovate-lanceolate, 4-5 mm, apex obtuse, often incurved, persistent in fruit; filaments ca. 1/2 or 2/3 united, shorter than petals; ovary conic, 3-4 mm; capsule narrowly conic, 8-10 mm, 3-septicidal. Seeds narrowly oblong, 1-1.5 mm, apex awned; awns more than 1/2 white villous. Fl. Mar-Sep, fr. May-Oct.

● Sandy places in river valleys in mountains, mountain slopes of river valleys; 1000-2800 m. Gansu, W Henan, SE Ningxia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, NW Yunnan.