Trees up to 10 m tall or shrubs, sobolifer-ous, occasionally dwarfed; trunk with rough broken bark below, smooth above, grey, flaking to expose cream patches. Branches spreading, brittle, rough, grey, new growth pale fawn. Leaves semi-persistent, turning yellow in wint­er, shed in spring, young leaves appearing with flowers, oblong to elliptic, c. 10 cm long and c. 2 cm wide but variable in size, apex obtuse, apiculate, base rounded or somewhat attenuate, margin pale, entire in lower half, shallowly serrulate above, midrib and veins prominent, firm and glossy; stipules intrapetiolar, paired, subulate, up to 15 mm long, rarely narrowly spatulate at the apex, early deciduous. Flowers fragrant, in simple, pendulous, clustered, many-flowered racemes terminating short an­nual branchlets; pedicels c. 1 cm at anthesis, up to 1,8 cm in fruit, articulated above the base. Sepals broadly ovate, 8 mm long, green to yellow, enlarged, reflexed, pink or red and white-edged in fruit. Petals soft yellow, obovate-attenuate, 12 mm long, fugaceous. Stamens numerous (c. 50) with filaments 2 mm long; anthers 1 mm long, biporose. Carpels 6-8, attached centrally on inside of torus; styles fused below, free and recurved above; stigmas apical, tumid. Drupelets kidney-shaped, rounded, 12 mm long, black or mottled with cream. Fig. 1: 1; 2: 1.