Shrubs, rarely small trees, deciduous, to 8 m tall. Young branches greenish, glabrous; old branches brown. Stipules subulate, partly caducous; petiole 3-7 mm, glabrous or pilose; leaf blade adaxially grayish white when dry, ovate or ovate-elliptic, 1.5-6 × 0.8-2.8 cm, papery, both surfaces glabrous, lateral veins (3-)5 pairs, base rounded or broadly cuneate, slightly oblique, margin subentire or conspicuously serrulate on apical half, apex shortly acuminate, rarely acute. Flowers yellow-green, glabrous, 2-6-fascicled or in axillary, nearly sessile cymes. Pedicel 1.3-3.5 mm. Drupe purple-black or black at maturity, cylindric, 6-8 mm, 3-3.5 mm in diam.; fruiting pedicel 3-4 mm, glabrous. Fl. May-Jul, fr. Jul-Oct.