Shrubs scandent, 2–5 m tall. Branchlets brownish to purplish brown, yellowish sericeous-villous, glabrescent, with remote complanate curved prickles. Leaves simple; petiole 0.4–1 cm, longer on old branches, yellowish sericeous-villous when young, glabrate in age; stipules free, 8–10 mm, pinnate-laciniate; lobes lanceolate or linear, sericeous-villous; blade oblong, ovate-oblong, or elliptic, 8–14 × 4–6.5 cm, lateral veins 7 or 8 pairs, veins brown, raised abaxially, impressed adaxially, thick, abaxially yellowish sericeous-villous, glabrescent, adaxially sericeous-villous only along veins, base subtruncate to shallowly cordate, margin with unequal sharp teeth, apex acuminate. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, cymose panicles, 12–25(–27) cm, many flowered, axillary ones shorter, racemose; rachis and pedicels densely yellowish sericeous-villous; bracts 5–9 mm, margin laciniate above middle, lobes linear to lanceolate, sericeous-villous. Pedicel (0.3–)1–2 cm. Flowers 0.7–1.5 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially densely yellowish sericeous-villous; tube shallowly cupular; sepals 5 or 6, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 4–6 × 3–5 mm, margin tomentose and entire, apex acuminate to caudate. Petals white, ovate to elliptic, 4–5 mm, puberulent, apex acute. Stamens numerous, slightly shorter than or nearly as long as petals; filaments linear, basally pubescent. Pistils 20–25(–42), somewhat longer than stamens, glabrous. Aggregate fruit red, subglobose, 8–10 mm in diam., glabrous, with few drupelets, persistent sepals green; pyrenes coarsely rugose. Fl. Mar–Apr, fr. Apr–Jun.

Rubus poliophyllus is treated as a synonym of R. paniculatus Smith in Fl. Bhutan 1(3): 562. 1987.

Sunny slopes, sparse mixed forests, roadsides; 600--1500 m. Yunnan [Sikkim].