Shrubs, evergreen, 1-2 m tall. Branches dark gray, subterete, not verruculose; shoots pale yellow, sometimes sulcate; spines 3-fid, pale yellow, 5-15 mm, adaxially slightly sulcate. Leaves subsessile; leaf blade abaxially pale yellow-green, adaxially shiny, deep green, narrowly oblong-elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-6 × 0.6-1.5 cm, leathery, abaxially slightly pruinose, papillose, midvein conspicuously raised, lateral veins slightly raised, adaxially with impressed midvein, lateral veins slightly visible, both surfaces with inconspicuous reticulate veins, base cuneate, margin sometimes slightly revolute, 2-7-spinose-serrate on each side or aristate-dentate, apex acute. Flowers 2-12-fascicled. Pedicels dark red, 1-2.5 cm, slender; bractlets red, ovate, ca. 1 mm, apex acute. Sepals in 2 whorls, obovate; outer sepals ca. 4 × 2.5 mm; inner sepals ca. 6 × 4 mm. Petals ovate, ca. 5.5 × 3 mm, base clawed, with approximate glands, apex entire. Stamens ca. 4 mm; anther connective distinctly prolonged, obtuse. Ovules 3. Berry yellow-green (immature), becoming red (mature), obovoid, 7-8 × 4-5 mm, blue pruinose, style persistent. Fl. May, fr. Jun-Aug.