Shrubs 3–5 m tall. Branchlets terete, glabrous or sparsely puberulous, prickly; prickles paired below leaves, sometimes scattered, straight or slightly curved, to 1.5 cm, stout, flat, gradually tapering to broad base, sometimes intermixed with smaller prickles and bristles, old branches sometimes intermixed with bristles. Leaves including petiole 6–11 cm; stipules mostly adnate to petiole, free parts ovate-lanceolate, margin glandular serrate, apex acuminate; rachis and petiole pubescent, glandular-pubescent, sparsely shortly prickly; leaflets 7–11, elliptic or ovate-oblong, 2–5 × 0.8–2 cm, abaxially pubescent or glandular, with prominent midvein and lateral veins, adaxially glabrous, base subrounded or broadly cuneate, margin doubly serrate, apex acute, rarely rounded-obtuse. Flowers solitary, or 2 or 3 and fasciculate, 3–5 cm in diam.; pedicel 1.5–3 cm; bracts 1 or 2, ovate-lanceolate, abaxially with distinct midvein, margin glandular serrate, sometimes pinnately lobed, apex caudate. Hypanthium oblong or obovoid, often stipitate glandular. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate, leaflike, abaxially subglabrous, stipitate glandular or not, adaxially puberulous, margin sometimes pinnately lobed. Petals 5, pink, broadly obovate, base broadly cuneate, apex emarginate. Styles free, much shorter than stamens, densely pubescent. Hip purple-red, oblong or obovoid-oblong, 1.5–2.5 × 1–1.7 cm, with a short neck at apex, often glandular hirsute, with persistent, erect sepals. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Nov.

Pinus forest margins, scrub, roadsides; 2300--3800 m. Gansu, Hubei, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.