Shrub or small tree 0·5–7·5 m. high (? or higher), with bark grey, smooth or ± reticulately fissured; branches ± quadrangular, reddish-brown and ± densely papillose-puberulous at first, becoming striate or shallowly fissured, with numerous raised brownish lenticels. Leaves petiolate, usually drying dark bluish-green; lamina (2·2) 3·6–6·5 (7·5) × 1–2·7 (2·9) cm., obovate to oblanceolate or more rarely elliptic or elliptic-oblong, obtuse or obtusely acuminate to rounded (rarely acute) at the apex, with margin densely curved-serrulate, cuneate at the base or narrowed to a rounded or truncate base, herbaceous to chartaceous, rarely ± glaucous below, with numerous widely spreading lateral nerves and densely reticulate tertiary venation prominent above (with main and subsidiary laterals almost equally prominent) and less prominent or almost smooth below; petiole (0·5) 1–1·5 (2) mm. long, rather slender, grooved above. Flowers 2–8, in a ± condensed pseudumbellate raceme; pedicels 1–2·7 (3·5) cm. long in fruit, articulated in the lower 1/6 (except sometimes the terminal one) or at the base, papillose-puberulous. Sepals 3–6 (7) mm. long in flower, oblong-elliptic, rounded, drying dark bluish-green, enclosing the developing drupelets and becoming orange-red to crimson, 6–10 (14) mm. long, convex and eventually spreading in fruit. Petals bright yellow, (5) 7–13 × 3–7·5 mm., obovate, narrowing to a short claw. Stamens drying dark bluish-green, with anthers 1–1·5 mm. long, 1/3–1/2 as long as the filaments, straight, dehiscing by longitudinal slits. Carpels 5–7, with styles completely united (or very rarely free at the apex); stigma 5–7-lobed or subglobose. Drupelets 8–10 x 5–6 mm., ovoid-cylindric, inserted at or near the base; embryo straight.