Trees 8–10 m tall. Branches blackish, glabrous; branchlets blackish brown, glabrous, with sparse lenticels; young branchlets reddish brown, velutinous to subglabrous. Winter buds ovoid, usually glabrous. Stipules linear, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate. Petiole 1.5–2.3 cm, glabrous, apically with 2 nectaries; leaf blade oblong to rarely elliptic or lanceolate, 6–16 × 3–7 cm, abaxially pale green and glabrous or with tufted hairs in vein axils, adaxially dark green and glabrous, base rounded, subcordate, or rarely truncate, margin appressed to spreading serrate or curved serrate with teeth apically shortly aristate, apex acute, acuminate, or shortly caudate. Racemes 16–30 cm, many-flowered, basally with 1–3 leaves; peduncle pubescent. Flowers 5–7 mm in diam. Pedicel 5–7 mm, pubescent. Hypanthium campanulate, base persistent in fruit, outside sparsely pubescent. Sepals triangular-ovate, caducous in fruit, outside sparsely pubescent, margin glandular serrate, apex acute. Petals white, obovate, base cuneate and shortly clawed, margin apically erose or undulate. Stamens 25–27. Ovary glabrous. Style slightly shorter than stamens; stigma disc-shaped. Drupe purplish red but blackish brown with age, globose, 5–7 mm in diam. Fl. Apr–May, fr. May–Oct.

Mixed forests, thickets on slopes, valleys; 1000--2500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, W Hubei, Hunan, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.