Shrubs 1–2 m tall. Branchlets brown or reddish brown to purplish brown, soft hairy at first, gradually glabrescent, glabrous when old, with needle-like prickles, with sparse, stalked glands. Leaves imparipinnate, 5–7-foliolate; petiole 4–8 cm, petiolule of terminal leaflet 1.5–3 cm, lateral leaflets subsessile, petiolule and rachis pubescent, with needle-like prickles, or with intermixed sparse, stalked glands; stipules lanceolate or linear lanceolate, 7–11 mm, pubescent or with sparse, stalked glands, blade of leaflets ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 4–8 × 2–6 cm, abaxially densely gray tomentose, adaxially sparsely pubescent, base rounded, often subtruncate on terminal leaflet, margin irregularly pinnate-lobed, sharply incised doubly serrate, apex acute to acuminate. Inflorescences terminal on short branchlets, 2-or 3-flowered, or flowers solitary in leaf axils; bracts linear, 5–8 mm, pubescent. Pedicel 1–2.5 cm, with abaxial surface of calyx pubescent, with needle-like prickles or with sparse, stipitate glandular hairs. Flowers 1.2–2 cm in diam. Calyx tube pelviform; sepals erect, spreading, ovate-lanceolate, 1.5–2 cm × 4–6 mm, margin gray tomentose, apex caudate. Petals pink or white with red spots, obovate or suborbicular, 5–6 mm in diam., much shorter than sepals, base pubescent and shortly clawed. Stamens numerous in 1 whorl, slightly shorter than or nearly as long as petals; filaments purplish red, linear. Pistils many, longer than stamens; style and ovary glabrous, rarely sparsely pilose. Aggregate fruit red, subglobose, 1–1.5 cm in diam., glabrous; pyrenes shallowly rugose or pitted. Fl. Jun–Jul, fr. Aug–Sep.