Small tree or shrub 1.8–6(12) m tall, with smooth bark; branchlets slender, at first covered with spreading yellowish-brown hairs, later ± glabrous, dull purplish, with finely ridged bark which flakes off in small pieces.Leaves membranous to thinly papery, 2–11 × 0.6–4.8 cm, elliptic or ovate-elliptic to elliptic-oblong, acuminate at the apex, rounded at the base, almost glabrous to densely pubescent above and on the nervation beneath, never velvety and the surface never obscured; lateral nerves in 6(7) main pairs; tertiary nerves moderately finely reticulate; petiole 5–9(15) mm long, spreading pubescent; stipules joined at base to form a cylindrical sheath 2 mm long with decurrent pubescent subulate appendage 5–7 mm long.Inflorescences pubescent, sweet-scented, often at leafless nodes, 1–2 cm long, usually of 7-flowered short dichasial cymes; peduncle 0.9–1.5 cm long with involucre of small brownish bracts at apex and another about one third the length below it or midway, presumably a true peduncle with a secondary axis but lateral branchlets suppressed; true secondary branches c. 2 mm long; pedicels 0–2 mm long.Calyx pubescent; tube c. 1 mm long, campanulate; lobes c. 1.5 mm long, triangular.Corolla rounded or ± acute in bud, distinctly contracted around the limb/tube junction in the dry state; white, yellow or pale green, glabrous or with a very few scattered hairs or with limb part pubescent outside, tube 4–5 mm long; lobes 3–3.5 × 1.5–1.8 mm, oblong-triangular, acute but not apiculate, strongly reflexed.Style exserted 1.5–2 mm; pollen presenter 0.7 mm long, ± cylindrical.Fruits deep yellow, 18–22 mm wide; pyrenes 3–5, each 18 × 8 mm with a conspicuous almost central notch.
