Shrub or small tree, 1.5–9(–14) m tall, all parts glabrous; bark coarsely furrowed; slash bright crimson; branches somewhat flattened and sometimes rather pendent. Leaves usually alternate, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, rarely obovate, 1.5–6.5x0.7–4 cm, abruptly apiculate, base cuneate, veins ± immersed, only midvein raised beneath and running back down stem in a narrow ridge; petiole 1–3 mm long, articulated to a small cushion. Flowers either hermaphrodite or male, plants androdioecious, hermaphrodite flowers in axils of upper leaves; peduncles solitary, usually 1-flowered, occasionally flowers in 2–3-flowered dichasia; male flowers both axillary and terminal, often panicled, each peduncle usually terminating in an umbellate cluster of flowers, rarely flowers solitary or in a 2–3-flowered dichasium; peduncles 4–28 mm long; bracts and bracteoles linear-lanceolate, 1–3 mm long. Perianth yellowish green, leathery; hermaphrodite flowers: tube 0.5–0.6 mm long, obscured inside by disk, lobes 3(–4), spreading, ovate-deltate, 1.5–2x1.8–2.2 mm, tips slightly hooded; male flowers similar. Stamens 3(–4); filaments 0.5–0.7 mm long; anthers 0.5 mm long. Ovary 2–2.8 mm long, ovules 3(–4) in hermaphrodite flowers, ovules and placenta aborted in male flowers; style 0.8–1 mm long, thick, cylindric; stigma in hermaphrodite flowers normally 4- rarely 3-lobed, lobes ellipsoid, prominent; in male flowers both style and stigma aborted or rudimentary. Fruit ellipsoid, 5–6.5 mm in diameter when dry, epicarp thin, fleshy, red when ripe. Fig. 5 (page 24).