Shrublet to tree, up to 8(–13) m high, unarmed or with spines up to 5 cm long; branches wine-red, glaucous to grey with indistinct whitish lenticels, glabrous. Leaves alternate; petiole 2–17 mm long; blade 3.2–12.5 x 1.2–8 cm, elliptic or oblong to obovate or oblanceolate, ± leathery, glabrous, acute to rounded, retuse or truncate at the apex, cuneate at the base, margin crenulate to crenate. Cymes 7–30(–50) mm long, glabrous; peduncle 2.6–17(–26) mm long; pedicels 0.5–5 mm long; flowers 3–60 or more in each cyme, 1.3–7 mm wide, functionally unisexual. Sepals 5, 0.5–1 x 0.5–1.3 mm, ovate to triangular, with ciliolate margins. Petals 5, 1.2–4 x 0.7–2.5 mm, elliptic to oblong or oblanceolate. Male flowers with 5 stamens longer than the pistillode. Female flowers with 5 staminodes shorter than the ovary, ovary 2(–3)-celled. Disk ± concave, 5–10-lobed. Capsule pink to red when mature, green when young, globose, 3–5(–7) mm long, glabrous. Seeds 1–2, dark red to brown, glossy, with a white aril covering 1/3–2/3 of the surface.
