Shrubs deciduous, to 2 m tall. Branchlets yellow-brown to red-brown, slightly angled, subglabrous to pubescent; buds brown to red-brown, small, with several scales, glabrous. Petiole 2–5 mm; leaf blade abaxially gray-green, adaxially bright green, ovate, elliptic-ovate, or ovate-lanceolate, 2–4 × 1–2 cm, abaxially pubescent or subglabrous on veins, adaxially glabrous, rarely puberulous, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin sharply serrate or doubly serrate from below middle, apex acute. Corymbs terminal, compound, 2–4 × 1.5–2.5 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels pubescent; pedicels 5–8 mm; bracts elliptic-lanceolate, 3–5 mm, puberulous, apex acuminate. Flowers ± unisexual, 5–7 mm in diam. Hypanthium campanulate, slightly pubescent abaxially. Sepals triangular-ovate, 1.5–2.5 × 1.5–2 mm, reflexed in fruit, apex acute. Petals pinkish, rarely white, suborbicular, longer than sepals, glabrous, base shortly clawed. Stamens ca. 20, reduced and shorter than petals in female flowers, longer than petals in male flowers. Disk annular, 10-lobed. Carpels pubescent, reduced in male flowers. Follicles spreading, puberulous, sometimes only so on adaxial suture; styles spreading. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Aug–Sep.