Shrub; twigs softly pubescent with spreading hairs; bud-scales persistent. Leaves short-petioled, membranous, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, base wide-cuneate or rounded, margin denticulate, 2 in. long, 3/4 in. wide, dark green sparingly pubescent on the nerves above, paler, softly and persistently pubescent beneath; petiole softly pubescent, 1/4 in. long; stipules unmodified, hyaline-scarious, minute. Flowers small, in peduncled racemes; peduncles slender, softly pubescent, 1–1 1/2 in. long; male pedicels glabrous up to 1/4 in. long; female glabrous or sparingly pubescent, 1/12 in. long. Male calyx green, glabrous, globose in bud; lobes 4, or occasionally 3, membranous. Stamens 30; outer 10, the rest central; filaments much shorter than the anthers; glands minute, hirsute, rhomboid, all interstaminal. Female calyx deeply 2-lobed. Ovary glabrous, 2-celled; stigmas connate at the base, suborbicular, suberect, smooth. Disk shallow urceolate, margin distinctly 2-lobed. Capsule 2-coccous, didymous; cocci 1/4 in. across. Seeds with a red aril and distinctly foveolate-reticulate testa.