Vines woody, turning black on drying. Branches longitudinally 8--14-grooved, glabrous or sparsely or ± densely puberulous. Leaves pinnate, usually 5-foliolate; petiole 1.8--7.5 cm; leaflet blades ovate, narrowly so, or lanceolate, sometimes lanceolate-linear or orbicular-ovate, 1.5--9.5 × 0.7--6.4 cm, papery, both surfaces subglabrous or very sparsely puberulous only on basal veins, or abaxially ± densely puberulous, base rounded, broadly cuneate, or subcordate, margin entire, apex attenuate, acuminate, or acute, rarely obtuse or rounded; basal veins abaxially ± prominent. Cymes axillary or terminal, usually paniclelike and many flowered, rarely 1(--3)-flowered; peduncle 3--8.5 cm; bracts petiolate and elliptic to oblong or sessile, small, and linear. Flowers 1.2--2.2 cm in diam. Pedicel 1.4--3 cm, sparsely pubrulous. Sepals 4, white, spreading, obovate-oblong, oblanceolate, or lanceolate, 6--20 × 1.8--4 mm, abaxially puberulous near apex, adaxially glabrous, margin abaxially velutinous, apex acute. Stamens 3--6 mm, glabrous; anthers narrowly obong to linear, 2--3.5 mm, apex minutely apiculate or subobtuse. Ovaries pubescent. Style 3--5 mm, densely villous. Achenes elliptic, 5--7 × 3.5--4 mm, appressed puberulous; persistent style 1.8--4 cm, plumose. Fl. Jun--Sep, fr. Aug--Nov.

Scrub, slopes, along streams; 100--1500 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, S Henan, Hubei, Hunan, S Jiangsu, Jiangxi, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, S Yunnan, Zhejiang [Japan (including Ryukyu Islands), Vietnam].