Shrubs, deciduous, very rarely to 1 m tall. Bark light brown. Branchlets of current year sparsely or densely yellow-brownish stellate-pubescent or subglabrous; branchlets of previous year gray-yellowish, terete, glabrous, with dispersed, rounded lenticels. Winter buds oblong, with 2 pairs of separate scales; scales reddish brown, glabrous, apex acute. Leaves always opposite, not clustered at apices of branchlets; stipules absent; petiole purple-reddish, robust, 5-13 mm, sparsely yellow-brownish stellate-pubescent, glabrescent; leaf blade purplish green when young, orbicular or broadly elliptic, 1.5-4(-5) × 1.5-4.5 cm, papery, abaxially with sparse red-brownish tiny glands, sparsely stellate-pubescent on veins, adaxially sparsely pubescent or glabrous, midvein raised on both surfaces, lateral veins 3-5-jugate, pinnate, arched, rarely branched, mostly anastomosing near margin, conspicuously raised abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, veinlets transverse, inconspicuous on both surfaces, not lobed, base truncate to broadly cuneate, without glands, margin remotely serrate except at base, apex obtuse or rounded and mucronate, rarely acuminate. Flowers appearing with leaves; inflorescence paniculate, at apices of lateral branchlets with 1-jugate leaves, 2-4 × 2-3 cm; rays opposite, decussate; first node of inflorescence with 2 rays, lax, glabrous, without large sterile radiant flowers; peduncles nodding, 1.2-3.7 cm, slender, stellate-pubescent; bracts persistent, leaflike, purple-reddish, linear to linear-lanceolate, glabrous; bracteoles scalelike. Flowers on rays of 1st and 2nd orders, not fragrant, shortly pedicellate. Calyx reddish; tube tubular-obconical, ca. 2 mm, glabrous; lobes broadly triangular, ca. 0.7 mm, glabrous, apex acute. Corolla pinkish in bud, white when open, funnelform, ca. 6 mm in diam., glabrous; tube 4-5 mm; lobes recurved, broadly ovate, ca. 2 mm, apex rounded, margin papillose-ciliate. Stamens longer than corolla, inserted at apex of corolla tube; filaments ca. 2 mm; anthers purple-reddish, elliptic, ca. 0.8 mm. Styles exceeding calyx lobes; stigmas capitate. Fruit maturing red, ellipsoid, 5-7 × 4-5 mm, base rounded, apex rounded, glabrous; pyrenes compressed, ellipsoid, ca. 5 × 4 mm, with 1 deep ventral groove, apex rounded. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul.

Bamboo forests, Abies forests; 1600-3800 m. NW and W Yunnan [N Myanmar].