Shrubs or trees, (2-)3-5(-12) m, spreading by root suckers; older twigs with gray, furrowed bark, twigs of current season green, with both appressed and spreading, stiff hairs. Leaves alternate; petiole 6-14 mm; blade ovate to elliptic, 5-12 × 2-4.5 cm, base cuneate, margins flat, apex acute to acuminate, mucronate, abaxial surface sparsely hairy, especially on veins, adaxial surface green. Inflorescences terminal, (10-)40-80-flowered racemes or panicles (branches to 5 cm), (5-)10-20(-28) cm; bracts (deciduous before anthesis), scalelike, linear to ligulate, 2-3 mm, margins ciliate. Pedicels 10-20 mm, with 2 deciduous, minute bracteoles proximally. Flowers: calyx lobes 5, broadly deltate, 1-1.5 × 1-1.2 mm, apex subacute, with short, stiff hairs; corolla 4-5-lobed, petals white, narrowly elliptic to spatulate, 9-10(-14) mm; stamens 10; filaments 4-5 mm, glabrous; anthers 0.7-1 mm; style (not persisting in fruit), straight to slightly curved (not recurved), 7-10 mm. Capsules oblate-spheroidal, 4-5-parted, 7-12 mm wide, inconspicuously verrucose. Seeds ca. 50-100, 2-2.5 mm. 2n = 22.
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