Amygdalus communis Linnaeus var. tangutica Batalin, Trudy Imp. S.-Peterburgsk Bot. Sada 12: 163. 1892; Persica tangutica (Batalin) Kovalev & Kostina; Prunus dehiscens Koehne; P. tangutica (Batalin) Koehne.

Shrubs 1–2(–4) m tall, dense. Branches spreading, spiny; branchlets grayish brown, glabrous, with many inconspicuous lenticels. Leaves on short branchlets mostly in clusters, those on annual branchlets usually alternate; petiole 5–10 mm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic, oblong, or obovate-oblanceolate, 1.5–4 × 0.5–1.5 cm, both surfaces glabrous, abaxially greenish, adaxially dark green, base cuneate, margin minutely obtusely dentate, apex obtuse to acute and mucronate; secondary veins 5–8 on either side of midvein. Flowers solitary, 2–2.5 cm in diam., sessile or subsessile. Hypanthium outside glabrous. Sepals long elliptic, 3–4 mm, outside glabrous, margin indistinctly minutely serrate. Petals pink, fading almost to white, obovate, 7–10 mm. Stamens 25–30, in 2 whorls. Ovary ovoid, ca. 1 mm, pubescent. Style over 5 mm, hairy. Drupe purplish red, subglobose to ovoid-globose, 1.5–2 cm in diam., densely pubescent; mesocarp thin and dry, splitting at maturity; endocarp subglobose, 1.3–1.8 cm in diam., surface inconspicuously shallowly furrowed but not pitted, ventral suture compressed and broad, base subtruncate, apex ± obtuse to ± acute. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jun–Jul.

Sunny slopes, stream sides; 1500--2600 m. S Gansu, NW Sichuan.