Japan Flora: Branching shrub about 2 m. high, the young branches thinly soft-pubescent, those of the 2d year's growth grayish brown; leaves 9- or 11-foliolate, the petioles 2-3 cm. long, the leaflets narrowly ovate to broadly lanceolate, 4-6 cm. long, 1-3 cm. wide, acuminate, ckep green and lustrous, slightly paler beneath, thinly white-pubescent while young, glabrescent or quite glabrous on both sides, acutely toothed, the lateral nerves slightly raised beneath; inflorescence 5-7 cm. long, often slightly more than 10-flowered, nodding, especially in fruit, glabrous or thinly pubescent; flowers white to pinkish, 10-12 mm. across; calyx glabrous, the teeth erect in fruit, ciliate; petals ascending, nearly as long as the stamens; fruit elongate- globose, red. June-Aug. High mountains; Hokkaido, Honshu (centr. and n. distr.); rather common. Kuriles, Sakhalin, Kamchatka, and Ochotsk Sea region.
var. pseudogracilis C. K. Schneid. Low dwarf shrub with scarcely nodding inflorescence; calyx-teeth usually slighdy incurved above; fruit slightly smaller. Alpine regions of Hokkaido and Honshu (n. and centr. distr.).