Deciduous shrubs or small trees, 3-7 m tall; branches and twigs moderately sturdy, striate, brown or gray-brown when dry. Petiole less than 1 cm; leaf blade thickly papery or thinly leathery, variously elliptic-lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, 6-8 × 2-3.5 cm, widest at mid-blade, base subrotund, cuneate, or attenuate, margin finely crenulate, apex acuminate or acute; lateral veins 5-7 pairs, disappearing before reaching margin. Peduncle slender, 5-7 cm, 1 or 2 × dichotomously branched, several flowered; pedicel slender, 5-6 mm. Flowers 4-merous, less than 8 mm in diam.; sepals suborbicular, short; petals reddish to purple, ovate, base cuneate. Ovary weakly angulate. Capsule green to brown, or yellow-brown when dry, nearly globose, less than ca. 1 cm in diam., with 4 short and sharp wings, greater than ca. 6 mm when fully developed. Aril bright red. Fl. Apr-Jun, fr. Jul-Oct.
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