Shrubs dioecious, 1-3 m tall. Branchlets robust, glabrous or sparsely shortly glandular hairy, unarmed. Buds brown to purplish brown, ovoid, 4-6 mm, glabrous, apex obtuse. Petiole 1.5-2.5 cm, glabrous or sparsely stalked glandular; leaf blade broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2.5-4.5 cm, glabrous, sometimes shortly stalked glandular, base cordate; lobes 3-5, margin sharply incised serrate or doubly serrate, apex acuminate or shortly so; terminal lobe narrowly ovate to narrowly triangular-ovate, longer than subovate lateral ones. Male racemes erect, 3-5.5 cm, 14-20-flowered, female ones 2-4 cm, fewer than 15-flowered; rachis and pedicels pubescent and shortly glandular hairy; bracts lanceolate to oblong, 4-6 mm, 1-veined, margin sparsely shortly stalked glandular. Pedicel 2-4 mm. Calyx dark-red to purple, pubescent; tube saucer-shaped, rarely shallowly cupular, 1-2 mm; lobes erect, ligulate to ovate, 2-2.5 mm, 3-veined. Petals subflabellate, ca. 1 mm. Stamens purple, slightly longer than petals. Ovary puberulent when young. Style 2-lobed at apex. Fruit black, subglobose, 0.5-0.9 cm, glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jul-Aug.

* Mixed forests on mountain slopes, coniferous forest margins, streamsides; 2200-4100 m. S Gansu, S Shaanxi (Taibai Shan), W Sichuan, NW Yunnan.