Shrubs, deciduous, 3-5 m tall, occasionally prostrate. Winter buds with 5 or 6 pairs of scales; outer scales triangular, sparsely puberulent; inner scales sometimes accrescent, lanceolate, inside pubescent. Branches with pith becoming brown and later hollow. Branches horizontally spreading; together with petioles and peduncles densely or sparsely pubescent and minutely glandular hairy to subglabrous. Petiole 1-7 mm; leaf blade greatly varied in shape, obovate, ovate, oblong-elliptic, or ovate-lanceolate, 1-10 × 0.5-3.5 cm, both surfaces pubescent, abaxially densely pubescent or only on midvein, base rounded or broadly cuneate, rarely truncate or shallowly cordate, margin ciliate, apex obtuse and mucronate or acute to acuminate. Inflorescence axillary paired erect flowers; peduncle 1-10 mm; bracts linear-lanceolate, 3-5 mm, early withering; bracteoles suborbicular-ovate, ca. 2 mm, 1/3-1/2 as long as ovaries, ± fused at base and cupular, apex slightly truncate to lobed. Neighboring 2 ovaries free, glabrous. Calyx campanulate, 1.5-2(-4) mm, scarious, laciniate or split to base into 1 to several lobes; bracts, bracteoles, and calyx glabrous to sparsely pubescent and glandular. Corolla bilabiate, yellow, 1.2-1.5 cm, outside strigose and glandular hairy; tube ca. 4 mm, often shallowly gibbous toward base, inside densely puberulent; upper corolla lip shallowly 4-lobed; lower lip recurved, oblong, 8-11 mm. Stamens and style exserted from corolla tube; filaments inserted at throat of corolla, puberulent at base; style slightly curved, pubescent throughout; stigmas discoid, large. Berries turning from orange-yellow to yellow-red and red, globose, 6-8 mm in diam.; seeds ca. 1.5 mm, smooth. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Aug-Sep.
● Forests, forest margins, scrub; 2400-4600 m. S Gansu, ?Qinghai, S Shaanxi, W Sichuan, E and S Xizang, NW Yunnan.
