Shrubs 1.5-2 m tall. Branchlets robust, pubescent, unarmed. Buds dark brown, oblong-ovoid to oblong, 4-6 mm, puberulent, apex acute. Petiole 4-7 cm, pubescent; leaf blade ovate to broadly triangular-ovate, 4.5-8 × 5-9 cm, abaxially pubescent, gradually glabrescent, sometimes sparsely glandular hairy, adaxially densely pubescent, base cordate; lobes 3(-5), narrowly triangular-ovate, margin irregularly coarsely sharply serrate; terminal lobe subequaling or longer than lateral ones. Racemes pendulous, dense, 5-10 cm, 15-30(-50)-flowered; rachis pubescent; bracts ovate to orbicular, 1-2 mm, puberulent. Flowers bisexual, 4-5 mm in diam.; pedicel very short or absent. Calyx greenish, glabrous; tube campanulate, 2-3 mm; lobes erect, incurved apically, ligulate, 2-2.5 mm, margin not ciliate, apex acute. Petals obtriangular-flabellate, 1.2-1.7 mm. Stamens inserted below petals and not longer than them; anthers yellowish white, subglobose. Ovary glabrous. Style not longer than stamens, apex 2-lobed. Fruit subsessile, red, globose, 0.5-0.7 cm, glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Jul.

* Mixed forests on shady slopes, coniferous forests or thickets in ravines, grasslands; 2100-3100 m. SE Gansu, Sichuan.