Leaves mostly elliptic or oblong-lanceolate, 2.5-7 cm long, 1.5-4.5 cm wide, pointed or acuminate at the apex, cuneate or attenuate at the base, sharply serrate nearly to the base, obscurely lobed with 3-5 pairs of small, shallow lobes, or sometimes nearly entire, thin but firm at maturity, glabrous, yellow green; petioles slender, a fourth to half the length of the blades, glandular; flowers 18-22 mm in diameter, mostly 3-6, in compact, simple corymbs, on glabrous, glandular pedicels; bracts conspicuously glandular; stamens about 10; anthers pink or rose color; fruit oblong-obovoid or pyriform, 9-12 mm thick, 10-14 mm long, bright red or orange red at maturity; nutlets usually 3-5. An irregularly branched shrub, 1-4 m high, with gray or brown gray bark, scaly on old stems; the branchlets slender, usually armed with many long, slender thorns. Scattered and uncommon in southern Indiana, usually growing on bluffs or rocky or sandy banks of streams.