More or less erect or usually climbing shrub or small tree 1·8-10 m. tall or long; stems angular, often long and thin, sometimes trailing or hanging, diverging from the base, the young shoots often purplish, puberulous. Leaves petiolate; blades ovate, elliptic or oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 1·5-10·3(-12) cm. long, 0·9-5·5 cm. wide, acute to acuminate or rarely rounded at the apex, cuneate to unequally rounded at the base, glabrous or with sparse hairs on the main nerves beneath and often with domatia, somewhat glossy above, margins sharply and closely serrate; costa and main nerves impressed above, prominent beneath, the tertiary venation closely reticulate; petioles often purple, 0·5-2 cm long. Inflorescences 1-4·5 cm. long, 1-2·5 cm. wide, many-flowered, finely pubescent-tomentose, the flowers creamy-white or greenish-yellow, sometimes tinged red, sweetly scented; peduncles 0-1·2 cm. long; pedicels 1-2(-5) mm. long; bracts and bracteoles narrowly triangular, 0·5-1·5 mm. long, 0·2-0·5 mm. wide. Calyx-tube 1-1·5 mm. long, 1-1·5 mm. wide; lobes 0·5-2 mm. long, 0·3-0·5(-1) mm. wide at the base. Petals (1·6-) 2-3·3 mm. long, 1-2 mm. wide at the base, 3-nerved (eventually distinctly spreading in cultivated material recently seen). Styles yellowish, turning brown, 0·5-1 mm. long; stigmas 0·3-0·5 mm. in diameter, free or sometimes cohering for a time. Capsule campanulate to turbinate below, conical above, 3-5(-6) mm. long, 3 mm. wide, finely pubescent, slightly ribbed. Seeds brownish, ± 1 mm. long, 0·5 mm. wide.