Shrubs 0.3-1 m tall, branchlets terete, with dense brown stellate hairs, becoming glabrous. Branches blackish brown, verrucose. Leaves alternate or a few fascicled on short shoots; petiole 1-2.5 mm; leaf blade brownish when dried, subspatulate to linear, 2-3.5 × 0.3-1.2 cm, leathery, both surfaces rapidly glabrescent, base cuneate, apex obtuse. Umbels solitary or 2 together, 2- or 3-flowered; peduncle 0-3 mm; bracts broadly triangular or ovate, concave, ca. 1 mm, apex acute, rarely 3-lobed. Pedicel 1-2 mm. Calyx ovoid, ca. 1.5 mm, brown tomentose. Mature bud tip ellipsoid. Corolla red, slightly curved, glabrous, basal part slightly inflated, lobes lanceolate, 7-8 mm, reflexed. Filaments ca. 2 mm; anthers ca. 4 mm. Stigma capitate. Berry purple, subglobose, 4-5 × 3-5 mm, granulose. Fl. Jul-Aug.

The plants are parasitic on species of Pinaceae.

Forests, mountain slopes; 900-2800(-3100) m. Chongqing, Fujian, N Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan].