Leaves not restricted to apices of branches, very often ternate; blades 3.5–7.5 × 1.3–4 cm, elliptic or less often narrowly elliptic, acute or obtuse at apex, acute at base, coriaceous, distinctly shiny on upper surface; lateral nerves in 3–4 main pairs; tertiary nerves moderately coarsely reticulate, prominent on both surfaces; domatia present as small blisters with a pin-prick-like puncture; petioles 3–4 mm long; stipules c. 3 mm long, with a shallow truncate base and linear lobe.
Flowers 5-merous borne in subsessile, 2–10-flowered subumbelliform cymes; peduncles not exceeding 2 mm long; pedicels 6–16 (25 fide Bullock) mm long, glabrous; bracteoles inconspicuous.
Corolla greenish-white; tube 3–4 mm long, with a ring of deflexed hairs above the mid-point inside; lobes 3 × 1.25–1.5 mm, oblong-lanceolate, acute.
Shrub or small tree 3–4 m tall, or sometimes a liana up to 10 m tall (spines on old stems fide Mwasumbi 11629, East Africa), glabrous; bark greyish.
Calyx tube 1.5 mm long, glabrous; limb reduced to a dentate rim, ciliate.
Immature fruit 7 × 6 mm; pedicels accrescent, up to 22 mm long.
Pollen presenter 1.25 mm; disk glabrous.
Style 7–8 mm long.