Shrubs deciduous to semievergreen, erect or prostrate, 0.5–2 m tall, usually irregularly branched. Branchlets grayish black, terete, robust, initially strigose, glabrous when old. Petiole short, 1–2 mm, stout, pubescent; stipules caducous; leaf blade suborbicular or broadly elliptic, (0.8–)1–2.3 × (0.6–)0.8–1.8 cm, veins raised abaxially and impressed adaxially, abaxially densely yellow tomentose, adaxially glabrous, base rounded, apex obtuse or mucronate, rarely acute. Inflorescences usually 1-flowered. Flowers 8–9 mm in diam., shortly pedicellate. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially pilose. Sepals triangular, 1–2 × 1.5–2.5 mm, apex ± obtuse. Petals erect, dark red, orbicular to broadly obovate, 4–5 mm in diam., apex obtuse. Stamens 20, shorter than petals. Ovary pilose apically; styles 2 or 3, free, somewhat not exceeding stamens. Fruit red, obovoid, 8–9 mm in diam., pyrenes 2 or 3. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Sep–Oct.

Dense forests on slopes, forest margins, grasslands, rocky places; 3000--4100 m. W Sichuan, SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan, N Myanmar].