Plants 1–2 m. Stems erect to spreading or prostrate, fine-ly puberulent, sometimes gla-brous except for prickles, not glandular; spines at nodes 1–3, 3–12 mm; prickles on internodes scattered to dense. Leaves: petiole 0.7–5.5 cm, pubescent, stipitate-glandular; blade pentagonal, 3–7-lobed, cleft 1/2+ to midrib and again irregularly shallowly cleft, 1–7.8 cm, base truncate or cordate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely puberulent, sometimes glandular on main veins abaxially, sometimes with scattered, yellow, sessile, crystalline glands, lobes acutish, margins deeply 1 or 2 times crenate-dentate, apex acute. Inflorescences spreading to pendent, 5–18(–25)-flowered racemes, 3–4 cm, axis reddish stipitate-glandular and puberulent, flowers evenly spaced. Pedicels jointed (joint sometimes obscured by glands and difficult to see especially on short pedicels; may appear as darker line immediately proximal to ovary), 2–10 mm, glandular-bristly; bracts linear-lanceolate, 1.8–4 mm, puberulent and reddish or purplish stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium cream to orangish, shallowly saucer-shaped to crateriform, (0.7–)1–1.2(–1.5) mm, glabrous; sepals somewhat overlapping, spreading or reflexed, cream to pale yellowish green or dull reddish brown, reddish color deepening with age, very broadly ovate-oblong, 1.5–3.5 mm; petals widely separated, erect, pale yellowish green distally and reddish proximally to reddish throughout, broadly fan-shaped to semicircular, cuneate-flabellate, not conspicuously revolute or inrolled, 1–1.5(–1.7) mm; nectary disc prominent, pinkish, raised, angled, covering most of ovary; stamens slightly longer than petals; filaments linear, 1.1–1.7 mm, glabrous; anthers yellow, transversely oblong, 0.5–1 mm, broader than long, apex blunt; ovary sparsely to thickly stipitate-glandular with slender, usually reddish- to purplish-tipped hairs, rarely glabrous; styles connate to middle, 1.4–2 mm, glabrous. Berries palatable but insipid, red, becoming black or dark purple, ellipsoid, 4–8(–14) mm, slenderly stipitate-glandular, bristly with reddish stipitate-glandular hairs. 2n = 16.
