Shrubs dioecious, 1.5-3 m tall, most parts pubescent and glandular hairy. Branchlets stout, unarmed. Buds brown, ovoid to oblong-ovoid, 4-7 mm, pubescent, apex acute. Petiole 1-3.5 cm; leaf blade suborbicular to broadly ovate, 2-5 cm, base subtruncate to shallowly cordate; lobes 3-5, rarely almost absent, margin irregularly crenate-dentate or doubly dentate, apex obtuse or acute; terminal lobe broadly triangular-ovate, slightly shorter to longer than broadly ovate lateral ones. Racemes erect, male ones dense, 3.5-7 cm, female ones slightly shorter; bracts lanceolate to oblong, 4-8 mm, 1-veined. Pedicel 2-4 mm. Calyx green, sometimes tinged reddish brown, pubescent, usually also glandular hairy; tube cupular to hemispheric, 2-3 mm; lobes reflexed or spreading, ovate to ligulate, 2-3.5 mm, inconspicuously 5-veined. Petals green tinged reddish purple, subflabellate to cuneate-spatulate. Stamens slightly longer than petals. Ovary glandular hairy. Style 2-lobed at apex. Fruit red to reddish brown, subglobose to ellipsoid, 0.5-0.8 cm in diam., shortly glandular hairy. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Sep.

* Coniferous forest margins, foothill thickets, ditch banks, roadsides; 2500-4000 m. W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.