Shrubs, evergreen, 1-2 m tall. Branches dark purplish red or dark gray, glabrous; shoots grayish yellow, sometimes, angulate, sparsely black verruculose; spines 3-fid, (1.5-)2-6 cm, stout, adaxially slightly sulcate. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially deep green, shiny, lanceolate, obovate, or narrowly obovate, 2-4 × 0.3-1.8 cm, leathery, abaxially sometimes densely papillose, midvein obviously raised, lateral and reticulate veins inconspicuous, adaxially veins inconspicuous, base attenuate or cuneate, margin often thickened, 1-4-spinose-serrate on each side, rarely entire, apex acute, mucronate. Inflorescence a raceme, 4-12-flowered, 2-4 cm. Pedicels 5-15 mm, glabrous. Sepals in 2 whorls; outer sepals elliptic to obovate, 4-5 × 3-4 mm, apex obtuse; inner sepals obovate, 5-7 × 4-5 mm. Petals obovate, 4.3-5 × 3-3.5 mm, base truncate, with separate lanceolate glands, apex entire. Stamens 4-5 mm; anther connective obtuse. Ovules 1 or 2, sessile. Berry red, oblong or oblong-globose, 7-8 × 5-6 mm, not pruinose, sometimes slightly so, style persistent and conspicuous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Oct.
Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings. Seeds needs stratification.
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