Shrubs or trees, 3-15 m tall, glabrous. Older stems pale brown, slightly striate; branchlets often deciduous, produced in succession from short shoots, bark purplish brown with white lenticels, sometimes not sharply contrasting in color with older stems. Petiole 2-3 mm; leaf blade ovate, narrowly ovate, elliptic, or ovate-elliptic, 3.5-11 × 2-6 cm, papery or thickly papery, base broadly cuneate to obtuse, apex acuminate to caudate; secondary veins 3-5 on each side of midvein. Inflorescences 2-6(-9) cm, 2-9-flowered; peduncle base without bud scales. Pedicel absent; bracteole 1, at base of flower. Calyx cone shaped. Corolla white or pale yellow, tubular; tube 5-7 mm, throat broader; lobes ovate to ± triangular, 3-4 mm, apex acute. Stamens (4 or)5. Disk pulvinate. Style 5-7 mm, shorter than or as long as corolla tube. Drupe ellipsoid, 1-2 × 0.5-1.4 cm. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Apr-Jun.

Forests, broad-leaved evergreen forests, mountain slopes, valleys; 500-2600 m. Anhui, Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan, Thailand, Vietnam].