Shrubs 2–5 m tall. Branchlets yellowish brown when young, brown or reddish brown in age, terete, densely yellowish tomentose-villous, gradually glabrescent, unarmed. Leaves simple; petiole 5–7 cm, yellowish tomentose-villous, often unarmed; stipules caducous, free, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, rarely narrowly ovate, 7–11 mm and nearly as broad, tomentose-villous, apex palmately laciniate; blade suborbicular or broadly ovate, 7–15 cm in diam., palmately 5-veined, lateral veins 2 or 3 pairs, raised abaxially, abaxially densely gray tomentose, sometimes hairs gradually deciduous, adaxially scabrous, glabrous or soft hairy along veins, base cordate, margin 5–7-lobed; lobes shallowly divided again, apex obtuse, rarely acute, unevenly shallowly obtusely dentate. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, narrow cymose panicles, 8–14 cm, to 20 cm in fruit, axillary inflorescences smaller, sometimes flowers few in clusters in leaf axils; rachis and pedicels densely yellowish tomentose-villous; bracts similar to stipules in shape, 5–9 × 3–5 mm, tomentose-villous, apex palmate-laciniate. Pedicel ca. 1 cm. Flowers 1–1.5 cm in diam. Calyx abaxially yellowish tomentose, intermixed soft hairy; sepals erect in fruit, rarely reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, margin entire or outer sepals shallowly laciniate apically, apex caudate. Petals purplish red, obovate or suborbicular, 4–6 mm in diam., much shorter than sepals, glabrous, base clawed. Stamens many, shorter than petals; filaments linear, glabrous. Pistils longer than stamens; style and ovary glabrous. Aggregate fruit black, semiglobose, ca. 1 cm in diam., glabrous, often enclosed in persistent calyx; pyrenes small, smooth. Fl. Jul–Aug, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 28*.
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A straggling shrub. It loses its leaves during the year. It grows 2-5 m high. They have soft fine hairs and no prickles. The leaves are simple and almost round. They are 6-17 cm long by 7-16 cm wide. There are 5 or 7 loves. The lobes are rounded. They have irregular teeth. They have a greyish covering underneath. The flowers are purple. They are in groups in the axils of leaves or at the ends of branches. The fruit is round and small. It is 6-8 mm across and black.
Slopes, roadsides, forest margins and thickets, often forming dense, impenetrable thickets on deforested slopes, at elevations from 500-3,000 metres.
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It is a subtropical plant. It is native to central and western China. In Sichuan and Yunnan.
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