Shrubs ca. 2.5 m tall. Young branchlets gray-brown, glabrous; old branchlets not lenticellate. Leaves clustered at branchlet apex, biennial; petiole 3–4 mm or absent; leaf blade pale green abaxially, green and shiny adaxially, oblanceolate, narrowly lanceolate, beltlike, or linear, 4–8 × 0.3–2 cm, thinly leathery, glabrous abaxially, lateral veins 5–6-paired, together with reticulate veins indistinct on both surfaces, base cuneate, margin flat, apex subacute. Inflorescences terminal, umbel-like, 1–5-flowered; bracts deciduous; pedicels 2–15 mm, tomentose or glabrous. Sepals slightly connate at base, ovate, 2–2.5 mm, glabrous or margin ciliate, apex obtuse. Petals connate, lanceolate, ca. 6 mm, apex rounded. Stamens 4–5 mm; anther ca. 1.5 mm. Pistil slightly shorter than stamens; ovary pubescent or glabrous; placentas 2, parietal; ovules 5–8; style ca. 1.5 mm. Capsule subglobose, slightly compressed, ca. 6 mm in diam., dehiscing by 2 valves; pericarp thinly woody; persistent style ca. 2 mm. Seeds 5–8, black after drying, ca. 2.5 mm; funicle very short. Fl. Mar–May, fr. May–Nov.
Forests, valleys, slopes, stream sides, rocks; at elevations from 800-3,000 metres, occasionally to 4,000 metres.