Shrubs to 5 m tall. Branchlets green when young, red-brown when old; buds red-brown, pubescent at scale margins, apex obtuse. Petiole red or green, 1–2.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade elliptic to narrowly so or oblong, rarely oblong-obovate, 3–4 × 1.5–3 cm, glabrous on both surfaces or abaxially pubescent, base cuneate or broadly so to rounded, rarely oblique, margin entire or serrate, apex obtuse or apiculate. Raceme 3–4.5 cm in diam., 6–10-flowered; peduncle and pedicels glabrous; bracts linear-lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Flowers 3–5 cm in diam.; pedicel short or nearly absent. Hypanthium shallowly campanulate, glabrous. Sepals nearly semiorbicular, ca. 2 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Petals obovate or oblong-obovate, 2–2.5 × ca. 1.5 cm, base attenuate into a long claw, apex rounded. Stamens 20–30, 3- or 4-fascicled. Capsule glabrous; fruiting pedicel 1–2 mm or nearly absent. Fl. May, fr. Jul–Aug.

Scrub on slopes, rocky places in valleys; 600--2000 m. Anhui, Gansu, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Zhejiang.