Shrubs or small trees, deciduous, 3–10 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown to blackish brown, terete, usually glabrous, with scattered gray lenticels; buds ovoid, puberulous, apex acute; scales several, dark brown. Petiole 5–10 mm, puberulous; leaf blade oblong, ovate, or elliptic to obovate, (3–)5–13 × 2–5 cm, papery, veins (6–)9–14 pairs, abaxially pilose along veins, adaxially lustrous, glabrous, base cuneate to rounded, margin serrate, apex acute or shortly acuminate to caudate. Compound corymbs terminal, 4–7 × 5–10 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous, with numerous oblong lenticels; bracts brown, linear, 3–5 mm, glabrous. Pedicel 0.7–1.5 cm, to 2 cm in fruit. Flowers 5–7 mm in diam. Hypanthium cupular, 1–1.5 mm, abaxially usually glabrous. Sepals broadly triangular or triangular-ovate, 1–2 mm, apex acute or ± obtuse. Petals white, ovate or obovate, 2–4 × 2.5–3.5 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Stamens 20, slightly shorter than or nearly as long as petals. Styles (2 or)3, somewhat not exceeding stamens, basally connate. Fruit purplish red, ovoid or subglobose, 7–8 × 5–6 mm, glabrous, slightly lenticellate. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jul–Aug.

Slopes, rocks, mountain sides, valleys, river sides, thickets, forests; 200--3000 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, N Vietnam].