Shrubs, evergreen, erect or climbing, 2-3(-10+) m tall. Branches slender, spines usually absent; old branches nearly black, glabrous; young branches with overlapping rust-colored scales. Petiole brown, 8-15 mm; leaf blade elliptic, ovate-elliptic, or lanceolate, 5-10 × 2-4.5 cm, papery or thinly leathery, abaxially with contiguous scales when young, varying from silvery with pale brown center to uniformly brown, later with scattered brown scales, adaxially with scattered lacerate scales, rapidly glabrescent, minutely punctate, lateral veins 5-7 per side of midrib, slightly conspicuous on both surfaces, base rounded, rarely cuneate, margin very shallowly crenate and revolute, apex acuminate or acute. Flowers often several in axil. Pedicel 7-10 mm. Flowers with overlapping brown or rust-colored scales. Calyx tube campanulate, 10-11 mm, abruptly constricted above ovary, not constricted at base of lobes; lobes triangular, 5-7 mm, inside sparsely white pilose and brown scaly, apex acuminate. Filaments ca. 1.5 mm; anthers oblong, ca. 2 mm. Style curved, ca. 3 mm, glabrous. Drupe ellipsoid, 1.5-2.2 cm. Fl. Oct-Dec, fr. Apr-May.
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