Shrubs, evergreen, 1-2 m tall. Branches brownish gray or brownish yellow, terete, black verruculose; spines 3-fid, concolorous, 2-3.3 cm, stout, adaxially sulcate or flat. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade adaxially shiny, yellow-green or grayish green, elliptic to obovate, 2-6 × 1-2.5 cm, rigidly leathery, abaxially pruinose or not, midvein obviously raised, lateral veins indistinct, adaxially with flat midvein, lateral veins slightly raised, both surfaces with indistinct reticulate veins, base cuneate, margin slightly revolute or flat, usually coarsely 1-6-aristate-dentate on each side, occasionally entire or 3-5-spinose-serrate on each side, apex obtuse or shortly acuminate. Flowers (8-)10-20-fascicled. Pedicels 1-2 cm, slender; bractlets lanceolate, ca. 2 mm, apex acuminate. Sepals in 2 whorls; outer sepals oblong-elliptic, ca. 4 × 2 mm, apex obtuse, rounded; inner sepals obovate, ca. 6.5 × 5 mm, apex rounded. Petals obovate, ca. 7 × 4-5 mm, base clawed, with completely basal glands, apex deeply incised or entire. Stamens ca. 6 mm; anther connective not prolonged, rounded-truncate. Ovules 2 or 3. Berry ellipsoid or subglobose, 6-7 × 4-5 mm, densely white pruinose, style not persistent; seeds 2. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. Jun-Aug.

● Thickets, forests, forest margins, roadsides; 1800-4000 m. Guizhou, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.