Shrubs scandent or erect. Young branches yellow-green, smooth, glabrous. Stipules narrowly lanceolate, 1-2 mm, persistent; petiole 1-2 cm, rarely to 5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade abaxially dark brown when dry, adaxially green, ovate or ovate-elliptic to elliptic, 4-9(-11) × 2-5(-6.5) cm, papery, abaxially glabrous, or sparsely pubescent on veins, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 9-12 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base rounded to cordate, margin entire, apex obtuse to rounded, or acute to acuminate. Inflorescences to 15 cm; lateral branches less than 5 cm; rachis glabrous or sparsely puberulent. Flowers numerous, glabrous, few in fascicles, in terminal cymose panicles or axillary cymose racemes. Pedicel 1-2 mm. Calyx tube shallowly patelliform, glabrous; lobes narrowly triangular, adaxially distinctly keeled up to middle. Petals spatulate, enfolding stamens. Disk thick, fleshy, centrally distinctly convex. Ovary nearly completely immersed in disk; style cylindric, undivided; stigma 2- or 3-lobed. Drupe red, bluish black at maturity, cylindric-elliptic to ovoid-oblong, 7-10 × 4-5 mm, with persistent cup-shaped disk; stone 2-loculed; fruiting pedicel 2-3 mm, glabrous. Fl. Jul-Oct, fr. Apr-Jul of following year.

The roots are used medicinally to alleviate pain. The young leaves are used as a substitute for tea.

Mountain forests, understories of forests and thickets on slopes, forest margins, valleys; below 2600 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, India, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam].