Tree 3–20 m. high (to 27 m. in East Africa), with bark smooth, grey or grey-brown; branches ± quadrangular, purplish-brown and glabrous or very rarely papillose-puberulous at first, becoming striate or slightly ridged and glabrous, with bark not exfoliating, with numerous small lenticels often somewhat elongated laterally. Leaves petiolate; lamina (3) 5–12·2 × (1·2) 1·5–3·9 (4·3) cm., oblanceolate or obovate to elliptic or oblong, acute or acutely to obtusely acuminate at the apex, with margin densely curved-serrulate, cuneate at the base (more rarely narrowed to a rounded base), herbaceous to chartaceous, with numerous widely spreading lateral nerves (usually at almost 90° to the midrib) and densely reticulate tertiary venation prominent above (with main laterals rather more prominent than subsidiaries) and smooth below; petiole 1–3 (3·5) mm. long, rather slender, grooved above. Flowers (5) 7–14 (20) in a ± elongated raceme, simple or very rarely branched at the base, with rhachis up to 20 mm. long, rarely pseudumbellate; pedicels 1·3–3·5 (4·1) cm. long in fruit, articulated in the lower 1/6 or at the base, glabrous or rarely papillose-puberulous. Sepals 6–9 mm. long in flower, oblong-elliptic, rounded, becoming pinkish-red to deep-red, 9–15 (18) mm. long, flat and spreading in fruit. Petals pale to bright yellow, (8) 10–12 × 3–6 mm., obovate, narrowed to a short claw. Stamens with anthers (1) 1·5–2 mm. long, c. 1/2 as long as the filaments, straight, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Carpels 5 (6), with styles completely united (or very rarely slightly free at the apex); stigma 5 (6)-lobed or subglobose. Drupelets (8) 9–12 (14) × (5) 6–7 (9) mm., ± flattened-cylindric, rarely ovoid or subglobose, inserted at or near the base; embryo straight.