Shrubs climbing, 1–3 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown to brownish, glabrous, with sparse, robust curved prickles and glaucous bloom. Leaves imparipinnate, 3-foliolate, rarely 5-foliolate; petiole 2–4(–5) cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1–2.5 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, glabrous, rarely pilose, sparsely stipitate glandular; stipules narrowly lanceolate, 6–8 mm, pubescent, with few stipitate glands; terminal leaflet blade broadly ovate or suborbicular, lateral blade of leaflets ovate or elliptic, 2.5–5 × 1.5–4(–5) cm, abaxially densely gray or yellowish gray tomentose, with sparse, minute prickles along midvein, adaxially appressed pubescent, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin unevenly coarsely serrate or doubly serrate, often 3-lobed on terminal leaflet, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, rarely axillary, corymbs, 4–6 cm, often 4–8-flowered, or flowers 2 to several in clusters in leaf axils; rachis and pedicels glabrous, with needle-like prickles; bracts linear or narrowly lanceolate, 4–7 mm, glabrous, rarely pilose. Pedicel (1–) 2–3 cm. Flowers 1.5–2 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially glabrous; sepals erect, spreading at anthesis, broadly ovate or orbicular-ovate, 6–8 × 5–7 mm, apex acute, apiculate. Petals white, suborbicular, 7–8 mm in diam., longer than sepals. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments linear, broader at base. Pistils somewhat shorter than stamens; apex of ovary and base of style densely gray tomentose. Aggregate fruit enclosed in calyx, yellow, globose, 1–1.5(–2) cm in diam., glabrous; drupelets apically with persistently tomentose styles; pyrenes reniform, densely rugulose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Aug.

Valleys, river sides, slopes, roadsides, thickets, forests, forest margins; 1500--3500 m. Gansu, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, NE India, Kashmir, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim].