Trees to 20 m tall. Branchlets dark reddish brown when young, dark grayish brown when old, terete, puberulent when young, glabrous when old, with white lenticels; buds ovoid, 4–7 mm, apex acute; scales several, dark reddish brown, glabrous. Leaves simple; petiole 1.5–3 cm, glabrous or slightly puberulent; leaf blade ovate to elliptic-ovate or suborbicular, 5–10 × 3–6 cm, lateral veins 6–10(–14) pairs, nearly parallel and terminating in marginal teeth, raised abaxially, both surfaces glabrous or abaxially puberulent along veins, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin irregularly sharply doubly serrate or lobed, apex shortly acuminate. Compound corymbs terminal, 4–8 cm in diam., loosely 6–25-flowered; rachis and pedicels sparsely pubescent. Pedicel 6–12 mm. Flowers 1–1.4(–1.8) cm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous. Sepals triangular or triangular-ovate, apex acute. Petals white, suborbicular to oblong-ovate, 5–7 × 3.5–6 mm, base clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens 20; filaments white, slightly shorter than petals. Ovary 2-loculed; styles 2, not exceeding stamens, glabrous, connate basally. Fruit red, oblong, ovoid-oblong, or globose, 1–1.4 cm × 7–10 mm, without or with few minute lenticels, sepals caducous, leaving a small annular scar; seeds pale brownish orange, linear-oblong. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Aug–Sep.

Slopes, gullies, mixed forests, thickets; 500--2300 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Zhejiang [Japan, Korea].