Shrubs 1–2 m tall. Old branches reddish brown, glabrous, glaucous and curved prickles 6–8 mm; flower bearing branchlets short, densely villous, with curved minute prickles. Leaves imparipinnate, 3-foliolate, rarely 5-foliolate; petiole 2.5–3.5 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 0.5–1 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolules and rachis densely villous, with sparse, curved minute prickles; stipules linear or subulate, 4–6 mm, villous; terminal leaflet rhombic, rarely ovate, lateral leaflets ovate or elliptic, 3–4(–5) × 1.5–3 cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose, adaxially appressed villous, base cuneate to rounded, margin irregularly sharply serrate or incised doubly serrate above middle, sometimes 3-lobed or incised-lobed on terminal leaflet, apex acute. Inflorescences clusters of 3 or 4 flowers at apex of short lateral branchlets, or flowers solitary in leaf axils. Pedicel 1–2(–3) cm, villous, with slender prickles. Flowers 1.5–2 cm in diam. Calyx 1.5–2 cm, abaxially villous, with needle-like prickles; tube pelviform; sepals erect, spreading, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, unequal in length, longer sepals to 1.5 cm, shorter sepals 6–10 mm, occasionally with sparse, glandular hairs, apex caudate and enlarged, sometimes divided. Petals white, suborbicular, shorter than sepals, base very shortly clawed. Stamens shorter than petals; filaments linear or basally somewhat broadened. Pistils many, shorter than stamens; ovary glabrous or tomentose only at apex; styles densely white tomentose basally. Aggregate fruit yellow, globose, 1.2–1.5(–2) cm in diam., glabrous, enclosed in calyx; drupelets apically with persistently tomentose styles; pyrenes reniform, shallowly rugulose. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jun–Jul.

Montane valleys, stream sides, waste slopes, forested slopes, forest clearings and margins; 2000--3700 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, Nepal].