Trees 5–10 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown to grayish brown, terete, with sparse elliptic lenticels, slightly white tomentose when young, glabrescent; buds oblong-ovoid, 6–9 mm, apex acute or shortly acuminate; scales several, reddish brown, glabrous. Leaves imparipinnate, together with rachis 10–15 cm; petiole 1.5–3.5 cm; stipules caducous or some persistent, linear-lanceolate, 4–7 mm, membranous or nearly herbaceous, margin entire or apically 2-lobed; rachis sulcate adaxially, initially tomentose, glabrescent; leaflets (3 or)4–8 pairs, terminal and basal ones smaller than middle ones, at intervals of 0.5–1.5 cm, blades oblong, oblong-lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, 3–5 × 1–1.8(–3) cm, lateral veins 7–16 pairs, slightly arcuate-anastomosing, abaxially white tomentose along midvein, glabrate, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate, margin entire or subentire basally, emarginate-serrate apically, apex acute to shortly acuminate, rarely obtuse. Inflorescences (4–)5–8 × 6–10 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous or sparsely white pubescent; bracts linear-lanceolate, 3–6 mm, membranous, margin usually entire, glabrous. Pedicel 3–5(–7) mm. Flowers 5–7 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially glabrous. Sepals triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm, abaxially glabrous or puberulous only along margin, apex acute. Petals white, ovate, 3–4 × 2–3 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse. Stamens 20, ca. 1/2 as long as petals. Styles 4 or 5, slightly shorter or nearly as long as stamens, gray pubescent basally, glabrescent. Fruit white, sometimes stained reddish, globose, 5–8 mm in diam., glabrous; sepals persistent. Fl. May–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.

Slopes, dense forests in gullies, thickets; 300--3800 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hubei, Jiangxi, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Yunnan.