Shrubs evergreen, 0.5-2.5 m tall. Branches yellowish green, turning grayish yellow or purplish red to grayish brown, sparsely pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves alternate; petiole ca. 1 mm, glabrous; leaf blade lustrous dark green, lanceolate to oblanceolate, 2-10 × 0.5-2.2(-3) cm, leathery, abaxially glabrous or sparsely puberulous, adaxially glabrous, base cuneate or decurrent, margin sometimes revolute, apex obtuse, rarely retuse or acute to acuminate. Inflorescences terminal, capitate, 3-12-flowered; peduncle 1-3 mm, pubescent; bracts caducous, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 5-9 × 3-4 mm, glabrous, ciliate on margin, apex obtuse. Pedicel to ca. 1 mm, densely pubescent. Calyx pink to white flushed purplish red abaxially; tube cylindric, 9-13(-15) mm, exterior glabrous; lobes 4, ovate or ovate-elliptic, 5-8(-10) × (3-)4-5(-6) mm, apex obtuse. Stamens 8, lower whorl inserted slightly above middle of calyx tube, upper whorl in throat; filaments short; anthers oblong, 1-1.2 mm; upper ones slightly exserted from calyx tube. Disk annular, ca. 0.5 mm wide, irregularly lobed. Ovary oblong-obovoid, 2-3(-4) mm, glabrous; style short; stigma discoid-capitate, 4-lobed. Drupe red, subglobose or ovoid, 6-8(-10) mm. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. May-Jul.

● Forests; 1000-3800 m. Chongqing, Gansu, Guizhou, W Hubei, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan.