Erect, deciduous shrub or small tree, (1.5-)2.5(-3.5) m tall; young twigs glabrous; branches thick, robust. Leaves opposite, sometimes appearing fascicled, sessile, glabrous; lamina narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, (49-)72(-93) x (8-)13(-21) mm, coriaceous, blue-green in living condition, apex acute, base decurrent, margin entire; midrib on lower surface pale and prominent; domatia absent; bacterial nodules dotlike or elliptical, unevenly scattered in lamina; stipules interpetiolar, limb triangular. Inflorescences sub-umbellate, branched, (32-)37(-44) mm wide; primary inflorescence branches 4-6 mm; flowers (14-)17(-21) clustered on short side branches 10-30 mm long; peduncles 6-8 mm; pedicels 3.5-4.5 mm; bracts up to 2 mm, densely white silky-hairy to almost glabrous inside; bracteoles present but inconspicuous. Flowers (14-)17(-21) per inflorescence; calyx 4-lobed, lobes short, triangular-ovate,0.5-0.75 mm, glabrous, persistent in fruit, never reflexing; corolla 4-lobed, white, tube cylindrical,(10-)13(-15) mm, lobes (15-)19(-23) mm; style slender, distally slightly thickened into an elongated club-shaped pollen presenter, (21-)26(-32) mm; stigmatic surface confined to bidentate apex; stamens 4, arising in corolla mouth; filaments very short; anthers exserted, dorsifixed near the base, linear to oblong, 5-6 mm. Fruit a drupe, spherical, slightly 2-lobed, (5-)6(-8) x (5-)7(-8) mm, black when ripe, with 1 or 2 pyrenes.
Stony, rocky soil in open mountain savannah (bushveld), rarely as part of copses of woody vegetation in grassland; at elevations from 500-1,200 metres.
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