Shrubs, 0.5-2 m tall or taller; branches pale gray, young branches usually reddish, with 2 bands of soft hairs. Leaves sparsely arranged or slightly crowded; petiole short; blade thin, ovate or lanceolate, sometimes oblong or elliptic, both surfaces white pubescent, tomentose, subglabrous, or glabrous, base cuneate, margins entire, apex obtuse to subrounded, apiculate; lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, prominent abaxially, reticulate veins conspicuous; stipules membranous, broadly triangular, acuminate, with acicular apiculus. Cymes terminal, sessile, 3-flowered, rarely reduced to 1 or 2 flowers, central flowers sessile, lateral ones pedicellate; pedicels red, with 2 bands of stiff or soft hairs; bracteoles 2, longer than calyx tube, ± connate, densely hispid or pilose outside, acute to aciculate. Calyx tube narrowly obconical, densely hispid or pilose on upper portion and calyx lobes; lobes 5 or 6, narrowly triangular, length 3 × size of width, ciliate, acute. Corolla funnelform, to 1.5 cm; tube ± pilose or subglabrous outside, densely hispid on upper portion and throat inside, limb spreading, 3 × shorter than corolla tube; lobes 5 or 6, with valvate aestivation, transparent, glabrous, margins membranous, apex rounded. Stamens 5 or 6, attached to upper portion of corolla tube, glabrous; filaments longer than anthers; anthers semi-exserted, linear-oblong. Pistils ca. 1/2 as long as corolla; ovary 3-celled; stigmas 3 or 4. Capsule 5-valvate from apex to base; valves crowned by persistent calyx lobes. Fl. May, fr. autumn and winter.

● Thickets on hill slopes or at streamsides, mountains; 800-2700 m. W Guizhou, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, W Sichuan, Yunnan.