A deciduous shrub of bushy habit 6 to 10 ft in height; young wood hairy. Leaves polished green and quite glabrous or nearly so above, sparsely hairy and paler beneath, ovate or oval, pointed; 3⁄4 to 2 in. long, 1⁄2 to 1 in. wide. Flowers rosy white, produced from three to ten together in short corymbs with slightly hairy stalks; calyx woolly at the edges of the triangular teeth. Fruit black, globose, 1⁄3 to 2⁄5 in. wide, with three or four nutlets.
Native of Siberia and other parts of N. Asia. Long known in gardens, this species is but little cultivated now, although it is one of the handsomest of the black-fruited cotoneasters. From C. acutifolius Turcz., it differs in its glossy green leaves, its generally less hairy or downy character, and in its sturdier habit.