Shrubs, deciduous, low, ca. 30 cm tall. Branches purplish brown; shoots dark green, sparsely black verruculose, glabrous; spines simple, 3(or 5)-fid, concolorous, 6-12 mm. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade abaxially grayish green, adaxially dark green, narrowly obovate, 8-20 × 2-6 mm, papery, abaxially slightly pruinose, scarcely papillose, adaxially with veins branched, scarcely reticulate, base cuneate, margin entire, occasionally 2-or 3-spinose-serrulate on each side, conspicuously revolute, apex acute or near rounded. Flowers solitary. Pedicels 1-3 mm, glabrous; bractlets oblong-elliptic, ca. 2.5 mm. Sepals in 2 whorls; outer sepals oblong-ovate, ca. 5 × 3 mm; inner sepals elliptic-obovate, 6-6.5 × 5-5.3 mm. Petals ca. 5.3 × 4-4.5 mm, base with separate, elliptic glands, apex incised with rounded lobes. Stamens ca. 2 mm; anther connective not prolonged, truncate. Ovules 2. Berry red, oblong, 6-8 × 4-5 mm, not pruinose; style persistent and short, or not persistent. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Sep-Oct.