Shrubs 1–3 m tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown, with sparse curved prickles, pubescent, gradually glabrescent, subglabrous or glabrous when old. Leaves imparipinnate, usually 3-foliolate; petiole 2–5(–7) cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1–2 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolule and rachis with soft hairs and sparse, curved prickles; stipules linear, 4–7 mm, pubescent; blade of leaflets ovate, elliptic, or suborbicular, 2–6(–9) × 1.5–5(–6) cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose, adaxially puberulous or subglabrous, base variable in shape, rounded to shallowly cordate on terminal leaflet, cuneate on lateral leaflets, margin irregularly coarsely sharply serrate or incised-doubly serrate, apex acute, shortly acuminate, or obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, corymbose or short racemes, 6–8 cm, ca. 5–10-flowered, or axillary and 1–3-flowered; rachis and pedicels densely tomentose, with sparse, minute prickles; bracts linear, 4–6 mm, pubescent. Pedicel 1–2.5 cm. Flowers 1–2 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely tomentose, unarmed, rarely with sparse, minute prickles; tube pelviform; sepals erect, broadly ovate or triangular-lanceolate, 7–9 × 3–4 mm, abaxially densely tomentose, apex acuminate to caudate. Petals white, rarely pink, obovate or suborbicular, 4–6 mm in diam., slightly shorter than sepals, base shortly clawed, soft hairy. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments broadened and flattened. Pistils nearly as long as stamens; ovary and base of style densely gray tomentose. Aggregate fruit orange or orange-red, semiglobose, less than 1 cm, ca. 1 cm or more in diam., densely tomentose; drupelets few; pyrenes shallowly reticulate. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Aug.

Valleys, wet places, stream sides, slopes, forests, thickets; 1500--3300 m. W Guizhou, W Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan.