Shrubs, 1-3 m tall; branches glabrous. Leaves opposite; petiole 3-7 mm, glabrous; blade drying papery, elliptic-oblong, lanceolate, lanceolate-oblong, or elliptic, 5-15 × 1.5-4 cm, glabrous on both surfaces, base cuneate, obtuse, or rounded, apex sharply acute to usually acuminate; secondary veins 7 or 8 pairs; stipules persistent or sometimes fragmenting, triangular to ovate, 5-8 mm, glabrous, shortly obtuse to narrowed and prolonged into arista 3-11 mm. Inflorescence terminal, corymbiform to congested-cymose, many flowered, glabrous; peduncle 0.4-1.5 cm; branched portion 1.5-4 × 2-7 cm (not including corollas); bracts linear or linear-lanceolate, 0.8-3 mm; pedicels to 2.5 mm. Flowers subsessile to pedicellate. Calyx glabrous; hypanthium ellipsoid, 1-1.8 mm; limb deeply lobed; lobes triangular, 0.5-1 mm, acute. Corolla white sometimes becoming dark red when dry, outside glabrous; tube 20-25 mm, glabrous in throat; lobes narrowly oblong to narrowly lanceolate, 5-6 × 1.6-2 mm, acute. Drupe subglobose, 8-10 mm in diam. Fl. Apr-Dec, fr. May-Jul.