Shrubs, evergreen, semievergreen, or deciduous, 1.5-2.5(-5) m tall. Winter buds with several pairs of acute scales. Young branches with stiff and upwardly curved hairs. Leaves ovate to lanceolate, 0.4-8 × 0.2-1.5 cm, leathery or papery, abaxially sometimes with minute black glands, adaxially usually shiny, glabrous or with sparse short hairs and reddish glandular hairs, midvein slightly impressed, flat or raised, sometimes stiffly hairy, base rounded to cuneate, apex acuminate to obtuse, sometimes mucronate. Inflorescences axillary, paired flowers; peduncle to 5 mm, pubescent; bracts lanceolate, 1.5-7 mm; bracteoles cupular, completely enclosing paired ovaries, sparsely glandular hairy. Neighboring 2 ovaries free. Calyx cupular, forming a collarlike emergence at base, overlapping apex of bracteoles; lobes ovate, glandular ciliate, apex obtuse. Corolla greenish yellow to white or occasionally purple-red, funnelform, 4-12 mm; tube shallowly gibbous at base, inside villous, outside glandular; lobes almost regular, ovate, 1-2 mm, apex obtuse. Anthers exserted. Style exserted, villous at base; stigmas capitate, hemispherical. Fruit purple, red, or white, ± translucent, globose, 4-8 mm in diam.; seeds brownish, ovoid or subglobose, sometimes compressed, 1-2 mm, smooth. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Aug-Dec. 2n = 18, 22.

Scrub, evergreen broad-leaved forests, sandy slopes along watersides, moist places in sparse forests; 300-3000 m. S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Nepal].