Shrubs or subshrubs to 1.5 m (usually smaller); stems erect, occasionally procumbent or buried in soil, stout; herbaceous branchlets ascending, green to brownish green, thick, internodes 2-4 cm × 1.5-2.5 mm, deeply furrowed, finely scabridulous. Leaves opposite, rarely in whorls of 3, connate for 1/2-3/4 their length. Pollen cones clustered at nodes, sessile or shortly pedunculate; bracts in 4 or 5(or 6) pairs, connate at base; staminal column not or slightly exserted, with 5-8 sessile anhers. Seed cones solitary or more often opposite at nodes, sessile or pedunculate, ovoid to subglobse at maturity, 8-11 × 6-10 mm; bracts in (2 or)3 pairs, apical pair connate for 3/4-8/9 their length, red and fleshy at maturity; integument tube less than 1 mm, straight. Seeds 1 or 2, 4.5-8 × 2-4 mm, elongate-ovoid, finely striate dorsally. Pollination May-Jun, seed maturity Jul-Sep. 2n = 28*.

This species has medicinal properties.

* Mountains; 2300-4200 m. W Guizhou, W Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan