Rhamnus virgata Roxburgh var. sylvestris Maximowicz.

Shrubs dioecious, to 2 m tall, spinose. Branchlets opposite or subopposite, dark purple, smooth, glabrous, terminating in a spine; axillary buds small, scales glabrous. Leaves opposite or subopposite, rarely alternate; stipules linear-lanceolate, margin ciliate, caducous; petiole 1-2(-3) cm; leaf blade suborbicular, ovate-rhombic, or elliptic, 3-7 × 1.5-3.5(-4.5) cm, papery or thinly so, both surfaces glabrous, rarely abaxially pilose in vein axils and adaxially pilose on midvein, lateral veins 4 or 5 pairs, base cuneate or subrounded, margin crenate-serrate, apex acute or acuminate. Flowers unisexual, 4-merous, usually few fascicled on short shoots or in lower leaf axils of long shoots. Pedicels 3-4 mm. Petals present. Drupe black or purple-black, subglobose or obovoid-globose, 4-6 mm in diam., with (1 or)2 stones, with persistent calyx tube at base; fruiting pedicel 7-8 mm. Seeds black-brown, with short abaxial furrow extending over 1/3 of length. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jul-Sep.

Mixed forests, riverbanks. Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning [Japan, N Korea, Russia (Far East)].