Trees to 30 m tall. Trunk to 50 cm d.b.h., bark black. Branches gray; young shoots greenish brown, soon glabrescent. Winter buds needlelike, ca. 2 mm, appressed pale brown puberulous. Petiole 5--10 mm; leaf blade oblong to obovate, rarely elliptic, 8--14.5 X 2.5--6 cm, leathery to thickly papery, glabrous, base cuneate, apex obtusely shortly acuminate, lateral veins 7--9 per side and looped before margin, reticulate veinlets abaxially raised and adaxially inconspicuous. Flowers not seen. Infructescences fascicles or short racemes. Fruiting pedicel 8--10 mm, densely puberulent. Fruiting calyx ca. 2.5 cm in diam., reflexed, rusty tomentose, glabrescent; lobes 4, apex subrounded. Berries orange-red, cylindric to subglobose, 4--5 cm, densely rusty tomentose, glabrescent. Seeds few, blackish brown, oblong, 3--3.5 X 0.8--0.9 X 0.4--0.5 cm. Fr. Oct-Feb.