Shrubs, deciduous, to 1 m tall. Branches yellow or yellowish brown, sulcate, sparsely black verruculose; internodes 1.5-4 cm; spines 3-fid, 1.5-3 cm. Leaves very shortly petiolate; leaf blade abaxially gray-white, adaxially dark green, obovate-oblong or obovate, occasionally suborbicular, 1.5-3.5 × 0.5-2.5 cm, papery, abaxially pruinose, both surfaces with conspicuously raised reticulate veins, base attenuate, margin closely 15-40-spinulose-serrulate on each side, apex rounded. Flowers 2-5-fascicled. Pedicels (0.8-)1.5-3 cm, glabrous. Sepals in 2 or 3 whorls; outer sepals oblong-elliptic, 7-8 × 4-5 mm; inner sepals obovate-oblong, 9-10 × 6-7 mm. Petals obovate, 7-7.5 × 4-4.5 mm, base clawed, with separate glands, apex entire or emarginate. Stamens ca. 4 mm; anther connective rounded or truncate. Ovules (3-)6 or 7(or 8). Berry red, ellipsoid or oblong, (1-)1.3-1.5 cm × 5-6(-7) mm, not pruinose, style persistent. Fl. May, fr. Jul-Sep.