Shrubs low, to 1 m tall. Branchlets dark brown to dark reddish brown, slender, pubescent, with intermixed dense glandular hairs, or glabrous, with sparse, straight to curved prickles to 4 mm. Leaves imparipinnate, to 20 cm, papery, usually 5–7-foliolate, sometimes 3-foliolate on flower bearing branchlets; petiole 2–4 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 0.8–1.5 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolule and rachis densely soft hairy or glabrous, with intermixed glandular hairs and sparse, minute prickles; stipules lanceolate, 5–10 mm, pubescent, with intermixed glandular hairs; blade of leaflets variable in shape, terminal leaflet ovate-elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, 4–7 × 2–5 cm, apex acute to shortly acuminate, lateral leaflets elliptic or ovate, 2–5 × 1.5–3 cm, both surfaces with dense spreading soft hairs, glabrescent, usually with some small prickles along midvein abaxially, base cuneate or rounded to subcordate, apex obtuse or acute, lateral leaflets often oblique basally, margin unevenly serrate to doubly serrate, sometimes with glandular hairs. Inflorescences terminal on short lateral branchlets, corymbose, 1- to several flowered; pedicel and abaxial surface of calyx with glandular hairs, soft hairy or glabrous; bracts lanceolate, 4–8 mm, puberulous, with glandular hairs. Pedicel 2–3 cm, with few small prickles. Flowers 2–3 cm in diam. Calyx tube pelviform; sepals triangular-oblong or triangular-lanceolate, 0.7–1.5 cm × 4–6 mm, inner sepals tomentose at margin, margin entire, rarely divided, apex long caudate. Petals white, nearly orbicular or broadly ovate-elliptic, 0.8–1.4 × 0.7–1.3 cm, abaxially shortly hairy. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments linear. Pistils numerous, shorter than stamens; ovary to 1 mm, with sparse, soft hairs especially apically, usually with some stalked glands; styles ca. 1.5 mm. Aggregate fruit red at maturity, subglobose or ovoid, rarely ellipsoid, 1–1.5 cm in diam., with few glandular hairs; pyrenes foveolate. Fl. Mar–Apr, fr. May–Jun.

Forest clearings, forest margins, roadsides, landslides, grasslands, river banks; sea level to medium elevations. Taiwan [Cambodia, India, Japan (Ryukyu Islands), Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam].