Olinia rochetiana A.Juss.

Shrub, small tree or less often a large tree, evergreen, usually (1.2–) 4–16 m. tall but occasionally said to reach 27 m.; often a small gnarled bushy tree in exposed rocky places.. Bark grey, smooth or rough, sometimes slightly peeling or flaking, often fissured; blaze white with reddish or purplish border.. Branchlets reddish when very young, later pale, mostly squarish, which together with the leaf venation renders sterile twigs easily identifiable.. Leaves opposite or ternate, often bright red when young; blade broadly rounded-elliptic to narrowly elliptic or rounded-rhombic, 0.6–12 cm. long, 0.5–4.5 cm. wide, rounded to acuminate at the apex, the actual apex blunt or emarginate, rounded to cuneate at the base, glabrous or minutely puberulous, paler beneath with the close reticulate venation characteristically darker or pellucid and forming a conspicuous pattern; midrib often reddish, impressed above, prominent beneath; petiole 2–9 mm. long, reddish.. Inflorescences globose or pyramidal, 1.5–7.5 cm. in diameter, usually many-flowered, the branches often puberulous; pedicels very short or up to about 1 mm. long; bracts very deciduous or rarely persistent, thin, veined, ovate or oblong, cucullate, pubescent, those enveloping a triad of flowers or simple terminal flowers 1.5–6 mm. long, 1–3.5 mm. wide, larger than the secondary bracts enveloping lateral flowers of the triad which measure 1–3.5 mm. long, 1–2 mm. wide.. Flowers sweetly scented.. Calyx-tube and combined receptacle ± cylindrical, somewhat narrowed to the base, mostly crimson, glabrous or puberulous, 2.5–7 mm. long, minutely lobed or undulate at the apex.. Petals yellowish cream, white, pink or crimson, often white at first and becoming red later, linear-oblong to distinctly obovate-spathulate, 2.3–5 mm. long, 1–2.5 mm. wide, rounded at the apex, always narrowest towards the base, mostly glabrous but usually pubescent towards the base inside.. Scales crimson-pink, 0.5–1.5 mm. long, 0.5–1.25 mm. wide.. Fruit pink or dull crimson, globose or ovoid, 0.5–1 cm. long and wide, usually speckled with pale lenticels, rather woody inside, marked by the circular scar remaining after the calyx-tube has fallen off.. Seeds brown, subtrigonous-ovoid, 2.5–3 mm. long and wide, minutely shagreened.

It is a tropical plant.

The fruit are eaten raw.