Shrubs to 1.5 m. Branchlets purple-brown when young, dark gray when old, angled, glabrous when young; buds ovoid, small, with several scales, apex subobtuse. Petiole 1–4 mm, glabrous; leaf blades unequal: those on flowering branchlets usually oblong-obovate, 4–8 × 2–4 mm, base cuneate, margin entire or 3-lobed apically, apex obtuse; those on sterile branchlets blue-gray and glaucous pruinose abaxially, flabellate, 7–10 × 8–12 mm, usually glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate to subrounded, often 3-veined, margin deeply 3–5-lobed. Umbels sessile or shortly pedunculate, ca. 1 cm, 3–13-flowered, with several small, clustered leaves at base; pedicels 5–8 mm, glabrous; bracts linear, 1–2 mm, glabrous. Hypanthium campanulate, glabrous abaxially. Sepals triangular, 1–1.5 mm, erect in fruit, apex acute. Petals suborbicular, nearly equaling sepals, glabrous. Stamens 15–20, slightly longer than petals. Disk undulate annular. Carpels puberulous. Follicles glabrous, or puberulous only on adaxial suture; styles terminal on abaxial side, divergent. Fl. Jul–Sep, fr. Sep–Oct.

Mixed forests, rocky cliffs and gullies; 2000--4000 m. NW Yunnan.