Shrubs 1–2 m tall. Branchlets red-brown, later gray-brown, angled, villous, later glabrescent; buds ovoid, with several brown scales, puberulous, later glabrescent, apex subobtuse or acute. Petiole 1–3 mm, usually glabrous; leaf blade ovate to ovate-oblong, 8–15 × 5–8 mm, glabrous or thinly villous near margin on both surfaces, veins indistinct, sometimes 3-veined basally, base cuneate to rounded, margin entire, rarely with a few teeth apically, apex obtuse or subacute. Corymbs terminal on short, lateral branchlets, compound, 2.5–5 × 3–6 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous to thinly villous; pedicels 4–9 mm; bracts lanceolate, 2–3 mm, puberulous, caducous, base cuneate, margin entire, apex acute. Flowers 5–6 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, ± thinly pubescent. Sepals ovate-triangular, 1.5–2 mm, erect in fruit. Petals white, orbicular or ovate, 2–2.5 × 2 mm, glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse or emarginate. Stamens ca. 20, slightly longer than petals. Disk annular, 10-lobed; lobes sometimes emarginate at apex. Carpels puberulous; styles shorter than stamens. Follicles spreading, glabrous or puberulous only on adaxial suture; styles terminal on abaxial side, suberect or divergent. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Jul–Sep.

Forests, forest margins, thickets, mountain valleys, rocky slopes, stream sides; 2500--4000 m. Fujian, Gansu, Hubei, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.