Shrubs, evergreen, 1-3 m tall. Stems terete; branches grayish brown; shoots reddish, usually not verruculose, rarely scarcely black verruculose; internodes 3-6 cm; spines 3-fid, 1-4 cm, adaxially sulcate. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade abaxially yellow-green or pale green, adaxially shiny, dark green, oblong-elliptic, 4-15 × 1.5-6.5 cm, thickly leathery, abaxially with conspicuously raised midvein, lateral and reticulate veins prominent, adaxially with impressed midvein, lateral veins slightly raised, reticulate veins indistinct, base cuneate, margin 15-25-spinose-serrate on each side, apex acute. Flowers 4-10-fascicled. Pedicels 1-2 cm; bractlets red, ca. 2 × 2 mm. Sepals in 3 whorls; outer sepals with a red band along middle, ovate, ca. 3.5 × 3 mm, apex subacute; median sepals rhombic-elliptic, ca. 5 × 4.5 mm; inner sepals obovate, ca. 6.5 × 5 mm. Petals obovate, ca. 6 × 4.5 mm, base cuneate, with contiguous, orange glands, apex emarginate with rounded lobes. Stamens ca. 4.5 mm; anther connective truncate. Ovules 1 or 2. Berry black, oblong or oblong-ellipsoid, 6-8 × 4-6 mm, not pruinose, style not persistent. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Jun-Nov.
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