Branchlets glabrous or pubescent. Leaves highly variable, usually ovate, elliptic, broadly ovate, lanceolate, or oblong-obovate, 3-15 × 1.5-8 cm, papery to leathery, both surfaces glabrous or hairy, base obtuse, rounded, cordate, or cuneate, margin finely bristle-toothed, rarely entire, apex acute to caudate. Cymes axillary, 1-12-flowered. Sepals connate at base, white or whitish green, broadly ovate, 3-4 × 2-3 mm. Petals free, white or tinged with red, broadly ovate to broadly elliptic, 5-8 × 4-5 mm. Fruit a leathery capsule, red or purple to black, subglobose, 5-7(-10) mm in diam., 5-ridged. Fl. Jun-Jul, fr. Jul-Sep. 2n = 48*.

● Forests, thickets, mountain slopes, valleys; 1000-3900 m. Chongqing, Gansu, Guangxi, Guizhou, Henan, Hubei, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan.