A deciduous shrub up to 8 or 12 ft high; young shoots reddish; spines three-pronged, yellowish, 1⁄2 to 3⁄4 in. long. Leaves three to eight in a cluster, mostly obovate, usually finely and regularly toothed, but occasionally quite toothless; 1⁄2 to 2 in. long. Flowers yellow, three to ten on a drooping raceme 2 to 4 in. long, each on its slender stalk up to 1 in. long. Fruits oblong, 3⁄8 in. long, red, covered with glaucous bloom, the style conspicuous at the end. Flowers in June.
Native of W. China; introduced by Wilson in 1904 under his W. 1731, but known earlier from specimens collected by the Russian explorer Potanin. It is quite hardy and a good grower, flowering and bearing fruit freely. It is related to B. diaphana but in that species the inflorescence is a fascicle or very condensed raceme with at the most five flowers. B. consimilis and B. faxoniana are related species, described by Schneider from plants growing in the Arnold Arboretum.