Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 2-6(-15) m tall; bark gray-brown, fetid, not flaking; branchlets terete, densely gray-brown puberulous, later glabrescent or subglabrous. Petiole 0.3-6 cm, rarely to 10 cm, brown puberulous, gradually glabrescent, with or without 2 glands at apex; leaf blade mostly narrowly to broadly elliptic, elliptic-oblong, or obovate, usually (5-)10-23 × 4-7.5 cm, papery or thinly papery, both surfaces glabrous, or puberulous along veins abaxially, hairs spreading and very short, midvein raised on both sides, lateral veins 7-9 pairs including 1 or 2 pairs from base, base usually acute-cuneate, less often obtuse-cuneate, rarely rounded, margin sparsely obtusely serrate, apex obtuse, contracting quite abruptly to an acumen to 2 cm. Inflorescence terminal, paniculate, 6-12(-20) × ca. 4.5 cm, many flowered (at least 20-30, usually more), initially densely brown puberulous, glabrescent, with age at least pistillate inflorescence rachises becoming pale brown or grayish and conspicuously densely pustular-lenticellate; bracts and bracteoles narrowly triangular, ca. 1 mm, pubescent. Flowers unisexual or apparently structurally bisexual, sordid-white or greenish yellow, scented. Pedicels 3-5 mm, to 1 cm in fruit. Staminate flowers: sepals broadly elliptic-ovate, 3-3.5 mm, texture thin, both surfaces sparsely pubescent to nearly glabrous, margin ciliate; stamens slightly exserted, light yellow, drying brown, filaments 3-4 mm, pubescent, hairs spreading, white when dried, long; anthers oblong; disk glands purplish when fresh. Pistillate flowers: sepals as in staminate flowers but ca. 1/2 as long; staminodes many, similar to stamens but usually only 1/2 as long; disk glands small, truncate, among staminode bases; ovary yellowish green to orange in fresh state, ovoid, somewhat collapsed and coarsely wrinkled in dried material, ca. 4 mm, placentas 2-4-ovuled; styles 3 or 4, sordid-white when fresh, filiform, ca. 1 mm, gla-brous; stigmas ca. 0.3 mm. Berry red when mature, drying black, globose, 6-9 mm in diam., pericarp thin, brittle when dry. Seeds 1 or 2, globose, (semiglobose when 2 present), 3-4 mm in diam. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May-Nov.
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Shrub or small tree, 3-6(-15) m, glabrescent; bark, grey, fetid. Leaves arranged in distant groups, obovate-oblong or oblong-elliptic, obtusely acuminate, ± attenuate at the base, subcoriaceous, shining coarsely and ± irregularly glandular-serrate, (8.5-)10-18 (rarely up to 35) by (3½-)4-7½(-14) cm; tripli-to nearly quinquenerved from the base, with c. 5 pairs of additional lateral nerves, veins finely reticulated on both sides; petioles (0.4-)1.5-4(-6, rarely up to 8) cm, glabrescent, whether or not with 2 glands at the apex. Panicles ± densely puberulent, finally glabrous, (5-)10-20 cm. Flowers dirty white or greenish-yellow, scented. Pedicels 3-4(-5) mm, thickened under the fruit, as the rhachis, petioles and young twigs ± densely set with thick, scalelike, nearly triangular or oblong, tubercled lenticels. ♂ Flowers: sepals rotundate-ovate, 3-4 mm. Stamens light-yellow, somewhat exserted. Disk-lobes purple. ♀ Flowers: sepals and staminodes nearly half as long as in the male flowers. Ovary trigonous, glabrous, yellowish-green to orange. Styles dirty white as are the stigmas. Berry red to yellowish-red when ripe, shining, 6-9 mm diam. Seeds globose (or semiglobose, when 2 seeds are developed), 3-4 mm diam.
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