Shrubs or small trees, 2–4 m tall. Branchlets purplish brown when young, blackish brown when old, angulate, yellowish brown tomentose-villous when young, glabrous when old, with sparse, brownish lenticels; buds reddish brown, ovoid, apex acute, scale villous at margin. Petiole 2–4 mm, villous; stipules caducous, small; leaf blade dark green adaxially, elliptic, oblong, or oblong-obovate, 4–10 × 2–4 cm, midvein and 6–8 pairs of lateral veins distinctly raised abaxially and impressed adaxially, abaxially brownish yellow, tomentose-villous along midvein, adaxially glabrous or subglabrous, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, rarely subrounded, margin minutely sharply aristate-serrate, apex acuminate or caudate. Inflorescences terminal, corymbose or subumbellate, 3–4 × 2.5–5 cm, several to more than 10-flowered; rachis and pedicels densely brownish yellow tomentose-villous or glabrous; bracts caducous, brown, subulate, 4–6 mm, membranous. Pedicel 4–10 mm. Flowers 8–9 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, abaxially densely yellow tomentose-villous. Sepals triangular-ovate, 2–3 × 2–2.5 mm, nearly 1/2 as long as hypanthium, margin entire, apex acute. Petals suborbicular, 5–7 mm in diam., glabrous, base shortly clawed, apex obtuse or somewhat emarginate. Stamens 20, shorter than petals; anthers yellowish brown. Styles 5, mostly united, not exceeding stamens, yellowish white tomentose-villous; stigma capitate. Fruit reddish yellow, ovoid, 1–1.4 cm in diam., initially slightly tomentose-villous, glabrate, with small pale lenticels; sepals erect or incurved, abaxially tomentose-villous. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct.

Slopes, roadsides, stream sides, dense forests, thickets, mountain valleys; 500--1500 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, Zhejiang.