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A shrub or small tree. It grows to 7 m high. It can be 15 m high. The bark is grey and cracked. The branches usually do not have spines. The leaves are broadly oval. They are 2.5-8 cm long by 2-5 cm wide. They are dark green and very glossy above and paler and dull underneath. The leaf tapers to both ends and the edges can have irregular teeth. The leaf stalk is 3 mm long. The flowers are very small and greenish-yellow. They can occur singly or in groups or 2-7. Flowers only last for a short time. The fruit is round and fleshy. They are 1-1.5 cm across. They are covered with dense sort hairs. Fruit are bright orange-red when mature. They grow in older branches. The fruit is edible.
Tree or shrub, 0.6-12.2 m high, dioecious, rarely armed with spines. Leaves alternate, petiolate; obovate to rhomboid; blade soft to coriaceous, 3-5-veined from base, shining dark green above, paler and dull below, margins entire or serrate. Male flowers in fascicles of 3-10, pedicellate; calyx 3-5-lobed; corolla absent; stamens 11-27. Female flowers solitary or in fascicles of 2 or 3, pedicellate; calyx 3-5-lobed, lobes obovate; corolla absent; styles 2 or 3; ovary 2-or 3-lobed, unilocular, placentas 2 or 3, each with 1 ovule. Flowering time July-Oct. Fruit an ellipsoid berry, minutely papillose, orange to red.
Leaf-lamina 2.5–8 x 2–5 cm., coriaceous, broadly elliptic to rotund or obovate-oblong, apex obtuse or subacute, cuneate at the base, margins entire or rarely with a few irregular teeth, shining and dark green above, paler and dull below, lateral nerves in 4–6 pairs, slightly prominent on both sides, venation very laxly reticulate; petiole 2–3 mm. long.
Male flowers in axillary fascicles of 2–7; pedicels up to 3 mm. long, densely and shortly pubescent; calyx lobed almost to the base, lobes usually 4, c. 2 x 1–5 mm., oblong, apex obtuse, pubescent on both sides; stamens c. 15, filaments c. 2mm. long, interstaminal glands minute, pubescent.
Female flowers in axillary fascicles, 1–4 together; pedicels up to 4 mm. long; calyx-lobes (3) 4–6, larger than in the males, c. 3 x 2 mm., annular disk slightly undulate, minutely puberulous or tomentellous; ovary ovoid, tomentellous; styles 2–3 (4), 1 mm. long, glabrous.
Shrub or small tree up to c. 7 m. tall, quite glabrous except for the inflorescences; branches unarmed (or armed in some S. African material), grey with pale lenticels.
Dioecious tree to 10 m. Leaves rhomboid, 3-5-veined from base. Flowers 1-few in axillary clusters, greenish. Fruits minutely papillose.
Ripe fruit 1.5–2 x 1.3 cm., fleshy, orange-red, ellipsoid, densely puberulous.
Seeds 1–2, c. 0.9 x 0.6 cm., ellipsoid, woolly.
