Shrub or tree 1–5 m high; bark brownish grey; spines furcate, sometimes bifurcate or simple, spine axis 0.8–3 cm long, branches 1–6 cm long. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–2 mm long, usually 1–3 stipules or bracts present in each leaf axil; blade ovate, elliptic or suborbicular, 1–8 cm long, 0.4–6 cm wide, acute or rounded and mucronate at the apex, cuneate or rounded at the base, glabrous or pubescent, with 12–18 straight pairs of secondary veins. Inflorescence terminal, few-flowered. Flowers white inside, pink to red outside; sepals 1–3.4 mm long, ovate to lanceolate, acute to acuminate, cilate; corolla tube 5–19 mm long, lobes overlapping to the left, obovate or elliptic, 2–10 mm long, 2–6 mm wide, rounded, not ciliate; stamens inserted at ± the middle of the tube. Fruit red to black, subglobose or ellipsoid, 9–20 mm long, 7–10 mm in diameter, 4–8 seeded.