Shrubs dioecious, 1-2 m tall. Branchlets pubescent; nodal spines 2, small; internodes usually unarmed. Buds brown, ovoid to narrowly so, 3-5 mm, glabrous or puberulent, apex acute. Petiole 0.5-1 cm, glabrous; leaf blade rhombic-ovate to suborbicular, 1-1.5 cm, thick, glabrous, base broadly cuneate to subrounded; lobes 3, margin irregularly obtusely dentate, apex obtuse or acute; terminal lobe longer than lateral ones. Male racemes 2.5-4 cm, 7-11-flowered, female ones slightly shorter, to 4 cm in fruit; rachis and pedicels pubescent, sometimes also sparsely shortly stalked glandular; bracts oblong, glabrous, caducous. Pedicel 2-4 mm. Calyx yellow to yellowish green, glabrous; tube shallowly cupular, 1.5-2 mm; lobes spreading or reflexed, broadly ovate, 2-3 mm. Petals flabellate to obovate, smaller than calyx lobes. Stamens somewhat longer than petals. Ovary glabrous. Style 2-lobed at apex. Fruit red, globose, 0.5-0.7 cm, glabrous. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

* Thickets along roadsides, mountain valleys, river banks; below 900 m. W Hubei, S Shaanxi.