Shrubs, evergreen, erect, 2-3 m tall. Branches thick, spines absent; old branches black, without scales; young branches densely fine scaly. Petiole rust-colored, 8-10 mm; leaf blade elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 6-11 × 2.5-4.2 cm, papery or subleathery, abaxially with overlapping scales; scales mostly gray, some brown, umbonate, margin shallowly erose-lacerate; adaxially with dense brown scales when young, glabrous when mature, scales irregularly lobed/divided, lateral veins 5-8 per side of midrib, conspicuous abaxially, base rounded, rarely cuneate, margin very narrowly incurved, apex acuminate. Flowers often 2-5 on short, slender, axillary shoots. Pedicel 4-6 mm. Calyx light yellow or greenish yellow, outside with overlapping scales, mostly white, a few brown; tube broadly campanulate, 8-9 mm, abruptly constricted above ovary, inside glabrous except for lobes; lobes ovate-triangular, 4-4.5 mm, with deeply divided white scales, inside sparsely brown scaly. Filaments very short, ca. 0.5 mm; anthers oblong, ca. 1.5 mm. Style erect, glabrous. Drupe ca. 1.5 × 0.7 cm, densely brown scaly. Fl. Dec-Feb, fr. Apr-May.

● Dense forests; 1000-1800 m. SW Yunnan.