Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 1-7 m tall. Young branchlets brown, shiny, or gray-white, longitudinally striate, densely pubescent; terminal buds ovoid, pubescent, apex cuspidate. Petiole 2-3 mm, rugose, pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially deep green, shiny, elliptic or ovate-elliptic, 2.5-4 × 1-2.5 cm, leathery, glabrous, midvein abaxially raised and glabrous, adaxially impressed and pubescent, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, indistinct adaxially, base rounded, rarely obtuse, margin spinescent-serrate, with 4-6 pairs of spines, apex shortly acuminate or acute, with a weak spine. Inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes, fasciculate, fascicles 2-5-flowered, axillary on current year’s branchlets; bracts lanceolate, ciliate; pedicels 2-3 mm, pubescent or glabrescent; bracteoles 2, median or submedian; flowers yellowish, 4-merous. Male flowers: calyx deeply 4-lobed, lobes ovate-deltoid, apex obtuse or rounded, ciliate; corolla rotate, ca. 6 mm in diam., petals ovate, ca. 3 × 2 mm, basally slightly connate, apex ciliate; stamens longer than petals, anthers oblong; rudimentary ovary ovoid, ca. 1 mm in diam. Female flowers: calyx as in male flowers; corolla erect, ca. 6 mm in diam., petals ovate, ca. 2.5 mm; staminodes ca. as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary oblong, ca. 2 mm, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., stigma discoid. Infructescences: solitary or paired, rarely 3-fruited fascicles. Fruit red, ellipsoid, 7-8 mm, 5-6 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 2-4 mm, pubescent or glabrescent; persistent calyx quadrangular, 2-3 mm in diam., ciliate; persistent stigma thinly discoid; pyrenes (1 or)2(or 3), obovoid, ca. 5 mm, ca. 3.5 mm in diam., abaxially palmately striate and sulcate, endocarp thickly woody. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Sep-Oct. 2n = 40*.
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