Shrubs, suckering unknown, ?much branched?, 10–20(–30) dm, thorny. Twigs with axillary end buds, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent. Leaves deciduous; ± sessile; blade narrowly elliptic, obovate, oblanceolate, or spatulate, 1–3 × 0.2–0.6 cm, base long-attenuate, margins usually serrulate, sometimes obscurely, teeth blunt, inconspicuously glandular, apex usually acute, sometimes obtuse, surfaces usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent. Inflorescences solitary flowers or 2-flowered fascicles. Pedicels (1–)4–12 mm, glabrous. Flowers blooming at leaf emergence; hypanthium campanulate, 3–4 mm, usually glabrous, rarely puberulent externally; sepals spreading, triangular, 1.5–2.5 mm, margins sparsely glandular-toothed, ?ciliate?, surfaces glabrate; petals usually dark pink, sometimes nearly white, elliptic, obovate, or suborbiculate, (5–)8–11 mm; ovaries hairy. Drupes greenish yellow to red-orange, globose to asymmetrically obovoid, ?compressed?, 10–18 mm, ?base cuneate-stipitate, apex mucronate?, densely puberulent; ?hypanthium persistent?; mesocarps leathery to dry (often splitting); stones ellipsoid to subglobose, ± flattened.
Dry rocky slopes, washes, canyons, sagebrush scrub, pinyon-juniper woodlands; at elevations from 900-2,600 metres.
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