Shrubs 1–2 m tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown, terete, villous, with unequal long complanate prickles. Leaves imparipinnate, 3-foliolate, rarely simple; petiole 0.8–1(–1.5) cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 0.5–1 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, pubescent, with minute prickles; stipules linear or linear-lanceolate, 4–6 mm, soft hairy; blade of leaflets lanceolate, ovate-lanceolate, or ovate, terminal leaflet much longer than lateral leaflets, 3–5 × 1–2.5 cm, lateral leaflets 1–2 × 0.7–1.4 cm, both surfaces glabrous or slightly soft hairy, abaxially with sparse, minute prickles only along veins, base rounded or broadly cuneate, margin sharply serrate, apex acute, rarely obtuse, often shortly acuminate on terminal leaflet. Inflorescences terminal on short lateral branchlets, 1–3-flowered; bracts lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, somewhat smaller than stipules, soft hairy. Pedicel 6–10 mm, villous, sometimes with sparse, minute prickles. Flowers ca. 1 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially villous; sepals erect, rarely spreading, lanceolate or triangular-lanceolate, 6–8 × 2–3(–4) mm, apex shortly caudate. Petals white, broadly ovate to oblong, slightly longer than or nearly as long as sepals, both surfaces soft hairy, base clawed. Stamens many, shorter than sepals; filaments broad, complanate. Pistils many, slightly shorter than stamens; apical part of ovary and base of style sparsely villous. Aggregate fruit orange or red, subglobose, glabrous or somewhat soft hairy, enclosed in calyx; pyrenes globose, deeply reticulate. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Jul–Aug.

Slopes, roadsides, near water courses, forest margins; 900--3300 m. Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [Bhutan, N India, Kashmir, Nepal, Sikkim].