Shrubs or trees, 2–12 m tall; bark grayish, falling off in flakes; young shoots stout, green, white-tomentose, glabrescent. Petiole 20–25 mm, glabrous; leaf blade leathery, oblong-oblanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 11–30 × 4–7.8 cm; base cuneate; apex acute to acuminate; abaxial surface pale green, glabrous or sparsely tomentose; adaxial surface bright green, glabrous; midrib grooved adaxially, lateral veins 18–22-paired and impressed. Inflorescence racemose-umbellate, 15–30-flowered; rachis 15–20 mm, hairy. Pedicel stout, red, 2–6.5 cm, glabrous; calyx lobes 5, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous; corolla widely campanulate, pinkish to white, with purple flecks and a basal blotch, or purple, 4–5 cm, lobes 5–7, deeply emarginate; stamens 15–22, unequal, 1.5–2.6 cm, filaments glabrous or puberulent at base; ovary ovoid, ca. 6 mm, glabrous; style ca. 3 cm, glabrous; stigma swollen, discoid, 5–6 mm in diam. Capsule obliquely ovoid, 20–45 mm; style persistent. Fl. Apr–May, fr. Sep–Oct.

Forests; 1400–4000 m. Chongqing, SE Gansu, C and N Guizhou, W Hubei, S Shaanxi, Sichuan, NE Yunnan.