Shrubs lianoid, to 2 m tall, stoloniferous. Branchlets brown to purplish brown, tomentose-villous, with curved minute prickles, sometimes with glandular hairs. Leaves simple; petiole 3–7 cm, tomentose-villous, with minute prickles; stipules broadly flabellate, 1–1.5(–2) cm, membranous, pectinately or palmately parted nearly to base; lobes lanceolate or linear, villous; blade orbicular to broadly ovate, 7–14 cm in diam., 5-veined, veins distinctly raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, papery, abaxially densely gray tomentose and villous, with minute needle-like prickles along veins, adaxially prominently rugose, sparsely villous, base cordate, margin 5–7-lobed; lobes irregularly coarsely serrate to doubly serrate, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, short subracemes, 3–5 cm, 1- or few flowered, or flowers several in clusters in leaf axils; rachis and pedicels gray or yellowish tomentose-villous; bracts narrower than stipules, 1–1.5 cm, villous, deeply divided similar to stipules; lobes linear to lanceolate. Pedicel 7–10(–15) mm. Flowers ca. 1.5 cm in diam. Calyx gray or yellowish tomentose and villous; sepals narrowly ovate or ovate-lanceolate, unequal in length, longer sepals to 1.5 cm, shorter sepals 6–8 mm, apex acuminate; outer sepals pinnatipartite, lobes lanceolate, inner sepals entire, occasionally with minute glandular hairs. Petals white, broadly obovate or suborbicular, 5–7 mm in diam., shorter than sepals, base broadly clawed. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments broadened, flattened, soft hairy. Pistils many, slightly shorter than or nearly as long as stamens; ovary glabrous or slightly soft hairy. Aggregate fruit red, subglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam., glabrous. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Sep–Oct.

Stream sides, roadsides, mixed forests, moist slopes, thickets in ravines; 1500--3100 m. Guizhou, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan.