Shrubs evergreen, 5-10 m tall; bark gray-black. Young branchlets gray or black, longitudinally angular, densely pubescent; older branchlets with leaf scars raised lunate, lenticels sparsely elliptic or circular. Stipules subulate, minute; petiole 2-3 mm, sulcate, pubescent; leaf blade abaxially greenish, adaxially green, shiny, obovate, elliptic, or oblong-elliptic, 1-3.5 × 0.5-1.5 cm, leathery, abaxially glabrous, densely brown glandular punctate, adaxially glabrous except on midvein, rugose when dry, midvein adaxially flat or slightly impressed, pubescent, lateral veins 3-5 pairs, obscure, reticulate veins indistinct, base obtuse or cuneate, margin crenate-serrate, apex rounded, obtuse, or subacute. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1-3, 1-7-flowered, solitary, axillary on scales or lower leaves of current year’s branchlets, rarely pseudofasciculate on second year’s branchlets; peduncles 4-9 mm; secondary axis ca. 1 mm; pedicels 2-3 mm, bracteoles 1 or 2, subbasal; 1-flowered pedicels 4-8 mm, bracteoles 1 or 2, submedian; flowers white, 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 2 mm in diam., glabrous, 4-lobed, lobes broadly deltoid, margin erose; petals 4, broadly elliptic, ca. 2 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens shorter than petals, anthers elliptic; rudimentary ovary conical, apex slightly apiculate or acute. Female inflorescences: cymes of order 1(or 2), 1(-3)-flowered, solitary, axillary on current year’s branchlets; pedicels 3.5-6(-12) mm, distal half slightly thickened, longitudinally ridged; bracteoles 1 or 2, submedian; flowers 4-merous; calyx ca. 3 mm in diam., 4-lobed, lobes rounded; corolla ca. 6 mm in diam., petals ovate, ca. 3 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1/2 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm, style sometimes distinct, stigma discoid, 4-lobed. Fruit black, globose, 6-8 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 4-6 mm; persistent calyx explanate, ca. 3 mm in diam.; persistent stigma thickly discoid, ca. 1 mm in diam., conspicuously 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, oblong-ellipsoidal, ca. 5 mm, 3-3.5 mm in diam., abaxially smooth, striate, not sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Oct.
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A shrub. It is compact and evergreen. It grows to 4.5 m high. It spreads 3 m wide. The branches are stiff. The leaves are small and scalloped. The flowers are white. The fruit are glossy black berries. There are several cultivated varieties.
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