Shrubs 1–3 m tall. Branchlets grayish brown or brown to purplish red, initially soft hairy, glabrescent, glabrous when old, with sparse, slender prickles. Leaves imparipinnate, usually 3-foliolate. Petiole 4–8 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1.5–3.5 cm, lateral leaflets shortly petiolulate or subsessile, with soft hairs or sparse prickles; stipules linear-lanceolate, 0.8–1.5 cm, pubescent; blade of leaflets broadly ovate to narrowly ovate, 4–8 × 2.5–5.5 cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose, adaxially pilose, basally rounded to shallowly cordate on terminal leaflet, broadly cuneate to subrounded on lateral leaflets, margin coarsely sharply serrate or incised-doubly serrate, sometimes pinnately lobed, apex shortly acuminate or acute. Inflorescences terminal, corymbose, 3–5 cm, 6–10-flowered, or flowers solitary or in clusters of 2 or 3 in leaf axils; rachis and pedicles pubescent, ± with needle-like prickles; bracts linear, 6–12 mm, pubescent. Pedicel 1–2.5 cm, sometimes with sparse, stipitate glands. Flowers 2–3 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially gray pubescent, intermixed tomentose, sometimes with needle-like prickles and stipitate glands; tube pelviform; sepals erect, spreading after anthesis, triangular-lanceolate, unequal in length, longer sepals to 1.5 cm, shorter sepals only (6–)7–10 mm, margin gray tomentose and entire, apex caudate. Petals purplish red, obovate, 7–10 × 5–7 mm, both surfaces puberulous, base shortly clawed. Stamens many in 1 whorl, slightly shorter than petals; filaments linear, glabrous. Pistils numerous, somewhat shorter than stamens; ovary ± pubescent. Aggregate fruit red, ovoid-globose, 8–11 mm in diam., glabrous or slightly pilose; pyrenes prominently rugose. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Aug–Sep.

Slopes, thickets, roadsides, forests, ravines; 2700--4000 m. W Sichuan, E Xizang, NW Yunnan [N Myanmar].