Shrubs 0.5-1 m tall, young stems and leaves tomentose, becoming glabrous, hairs mostly closely adpressed, reddish brown, stellate, sometimes also with some short verticillate. Branches grayish brown, lenticellate. Leaves opposite or subopposite; petiole 8-10 mm; leaf blade ovate to ovate-oblong, 2.5-6 × 1.5-4 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrescent, lateral veins 3 or 4 pairs, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, apex obtuse. Umbels solitary or 2 together, sometimes at leafless nodes, (1-)2(-4)-flowered; peduncle 2-4 mm, stellate hairy; bracts triangular, ca. 0.5 mm.; pedicel 6-7 mm.; calyx ellipsoid or ovoid, ca. 2 mm, limb annular. Mature bud 2.5-2.7 cm, tip enlarged, ovoid; corolla brownish, slightly curved, with adpressed stellate hairs, basal part inflated, lobes spatulate, ca. 6 mm, reflexed; filaments ca. 1 mm; anthers ca. 3 mm, multilocellate; style red; stigma capitate. Berry yellowish, ellipsoid or subglobose, 8-10 × 5-6 mm, verrucose, becoming smooth when mature.

Flora of China

Used for treating rheumatic or rheumatoid arthritis, abnormal uterine bleeding, excessive menstrual flow, uterine bleeding during pregnancy and threatened abortion and hypertension.

Jing-Nuan Wu. An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. P: 623, Oxford University Press, Inc.2005.