Shrubs 1–2 m tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown, pubescent at first, glabrescent, glabrous when old, nearly unarmed or with sparse prickles. Leaves imparipinnate, 3-foliolate; petiole 5–9 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1–2 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile or shortly petiolulate, pubescent, with sparse, needle-like prickles; stipules linear, 5–7 mm, pubescent; blade of leaflets lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, 4–8(–10) × 1.5–3(–4) cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose, adaxially glabrous, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin irregularly rough sharply serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences usually terminal, corymbose or short racemes, (3–)4–5 cm, several to more than 10-flowered; rachis and pedicels pubescent; bracts lanceolate or linear, 5–6 mm, pubescent. Pedicel 0.5–1 cm. Flowers 6–9 mm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely white tomentose, with intermixed straight hairs; sepals erect in flower and fruit, ovate, 5–6 × 2–3 mm, apex acute, cuspidate. Petals purplish red, broadly elliptic or narrowly obovate, tomentose, base long clawed. Stamens many, nearly as long as petals; filaments broadened and flattened basally. Pistils numerous, nearly as long as or slightly shorter than stamens; ovary and base of style pubescent. Aggregate fruit red, subglobose, less than 1 cm in diam., pilose; pyrenes shallowly rugose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul.

Mixed forested slopes, hillsides; below 2000 m. Anhui Jiangxi, Zhejiang.