Evergreen. Stems and branches conspicuously striate. Petiole slender, 3.5--12 cm; leaf blade palmately 3--9-foliolate; petiolules slender, 2--4 cm; leaflets 4--13 × 1--7 cm, papery or leathery, abaxially pale green, adaxially dark green and shiny, base rounded, broadly cuneate, or sometimes subtruncate, apex acuminate to caudate-acuminate; veins abaxially conspicuously prominent; secondary veins 5--8 pairs, anastomosing near margin. Inflorescences several, fascicled racemes; bracts broadly ovate to suborbicular, scaly, persistent; peduncle 1--3.5(--5) cm. Flowers several per raceme. Male flowers: sepals greenish white; outer 3 sepals oblong, 11--15 × 4--5 mm, apex obtuse; inner 3 sepals oblong-lanceolate, apex acute. Petals obovate to elliptic, less than 1 mm. Stamens 8--12 mm; filaments linear, 5.5--7 mm, slightly thick; anthers 3.5--5 mm; connective apical appendage short, apiculate. Pistillodes ovoid-subulate, ca. 1.5 mm. Female flowers: sepals purple; outer 3 sepals ovate-oblong, 16--22 × 7--9 mm; inner 3 sepals narrower and shorter. Staminodes minute; anthers clavate. Carpels oblong to conical. Stigma sessile, oblique. Fruit reddish purple at maturity, irregularly oblong to ellipsoid, (3--)5--7 × ca. 4 cm, densely and minutely tuberculate, obtuse at both ends, apex often mucronate. Seeds numerous, obovoid; seed coat brown. Fl. Apr--May, fr. Jul--Sep.

Forests, mixed forests by streams or other shady moist sites, forest margins on mountain slopes, along valleys; 600--3000 m. Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Nepal, Sikkim].