Shrubs scandent, 7-8 m tall, glabrous. Branchlets spreading, yellow or turning brown. Stipules caducous; petiole 1.3-2.5 cm, glabrous; leaf blade adaxially green, turning yellow when dry, ovate, ovate-elliptic, or oblong, 7-15 × 3-7 cm, papery or subleathery, adaxially glabrous, lateral veins 12-18 pairs, prominent on both surfaces, base rounded, apex obtuse to acute, mucronulate. Flowers yellow-green, very small, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous, usually 1 to few in fascicles, in narrow cymose panicles, rarely cymose racemes at ends of lateral branches. Pedicel 2-3 mm. Calyx tube shallowly dish-shaped; lobes narrowly triangular. Petals obovate, distinctly hooded. Stamens nearly completely enfolded by petals. Disk thick, fleshy. Ovary deeply immersed in disk; style cylindric, short, stout; stigma 2-or 3-lobed. Drupe purple-red or purple-black at maturity, subcylindric, 7-11 mm, 4-5 mm in diam., base with persistent cup-shaped disk, apex mucronulate; mesocarp thin, sour-sweet-tasting; fruiting pedicel 3-5 mm, glabrous. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. May-Jul of following year.
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A twining shrub. It loses its leaves during the year. It grows to about 3 m high. The leaves are alternate. They are 6-13 cm long by 5-8 cm wide. They are oval with a tip at the end. The veins are parallel. The flowers are greenish-yellow. They are 2 mm across and in groups at the ends of branches. The fruit are oblong and 8-10 mm long. They are red-black and sweet and edible.
Wet shaded places in forested areas; at elevations from 2,000-3,400 metres. Often found in thickets or forests on slopes; at elevations from 1,200-4,000 metres.
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It is a temperate plant. It grows in Nepal at 2000-3400 m altitude in wet, shady places.
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