Rubus platysepalus var. gracilior Handel-Mazzetti.

Shrubs, to 2 m tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown, terete, yellowish villous, with sparse, broad based recurved prickles. Leaves simple; petiole 3–4.5 cm, yellowish villous, with sparse, recurved minute prickles; stipules caducous, free, to 1 cm, villous, pinnatipartite or palmatipartite nearly to base, lobes linear or lanceolate; blade broadly ovate, 6–10 × 5–8.5 cm, palmately 5-veined, papery, abaxially yellowish gray tomentose, villous along brown to rust colored veins, with sparse, minute prickles along midvein, adaxially appressed strigose-pilose, base deeply cordate, margin 5–7-lobed; lobes apically acute or obtuse, terminal lobe longer than lateral lobes, irregularly coarsely serrate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, terminal ones cymose panicles, 10–20 cm or more, loosely flowered; axillary inflorescences subracemes, shorter; rachis and pedicels yellowish villous, with sparse, curved minute prickles; bracts 7–9 mm, palmatipartite or pinnatipartite; lobes linear or linear-lanceolate, villous. Pedicel 5–8 mm. Flowers 8–10 mm in diam. Calyx abaxially yellowish villous; tube 4–5 mm; sepals broadly ovate or broadly triangular-ovate, 5–8 × 3–5 mm, apex shortly acuminate, outer sepals apically laciniate, inner sepals entire, abaxially with tomentose margin. Petals white, broadly obovate, 4–5.5 mm and ca. as broad, pubescent, base clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens many, slightly shorter than or nearly as long as petals; filaments linear, dilated toward base, glabrous or with few long hairs at apex of anthers. Pistils numerous, longer than stamens; ovary whitish pubescent; styles glabrous. Fruit unknown. Fl. Jun–Aug.

Thickets, roadsides; Low elevations. Guangxi, W Hunan (Wugang Xian).