A deciduous shrub 6 to 8 ft high, the larger branches covered with a loose peeling bark. Leaves three- or five-lobed, up to 4 in. long by 3 in. wide, more or less downy beneath, the lobes pointed, margins double-toothed. Flowers white, 1⁄3 in. across, produced each on a slender downy stalk in corymbs 11⁄2 to 2 in. across, terminating short twigs. Calyx with five thickly downy, triangular lobes. Stamens about forty, purple; petals downy on the outside. Fruits downy.
Native of the Russian Far East, Korea, and N.E. China; much resembling P. opulifolius. The leaves appear generally to be larger, more downy beneath and more distinctly five-lobed; the downy pods too are distinctive, and much shorter in proportion to the calyx.