Shrubs 2-3(-5) m tall. Branchlets dark purplish brown to brown, glabrous, unarmed. Buds brown, ovoid to oblong, 4-5 × 2-3 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Petiole 3-9 cm, puberulent, sparsely glandular hairy near base; leaf blade ovate to broadly triangular-ovate, 5-9 cm, abaxially pubescent or minutely stalked glandular along veins and at vein axils, adaxially glabrous or sparsely coarsely glandular hairy, base cordate or deeply so, rarely subtruncate; lobes 3-5, narrowly ovate to narrowly triangular, margin irregularly sharply serrate or doubly serrate, apex acute to long acuminate; terminal lobe subequaling or longer than lateral ones. Racemes nodding, dense, 5-10(-12) cm, 9-25-flowered; rachis pubescent; bracts narrowly ovate to lanceolate-ovate or broadly ovate to suborbicular, 1.5-4 mm, glabrous or margin sparsely ciliate. Flowers bisexual, 4-6 mm in diam.; pedicel usually short or absent. Calyx green tinged red, glabrous; tube campanulate, 2.5-4 mm; lobes not incurved, ovate to ligulate, 2-3.5 mm, margin not ciliate. Petals obtriangular-flabellate, 1-1.8 mm. Stamens inserted level with petals and subequaling them; anthers globose. Ovary glabrous, rarely pubescent. Style not equaling stamens, apex 2-lobed. Fruit black, globose, 0.5-0.7 cm, glabrous, rarely pubescent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Aug.

* Coniferous or mixed forests and forest margins on mountain slopes and in valleys, thickets, rocky and high mountain slopes; 1400-4700 m. SW Anhui, Gansu, NE Guizhou, W Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.