Shrubs, erect or scandent, spinescent. Leaves alternate or subopposite; stipules subulate, 1-2 mm; petiole 5-14 mm, glabrous or sparsely puberulent; leaf blade abaxially pale green, adaxially slightly shiny and dark green or pale brown when dry, ovate, ovate-elliptic, or lanceolate, 4-11 × 1.5-4 cm, papery or nearly leathery, both surfaces glabrous, or young leaves sparsely tomentose, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, ± prominent abaxially, slightly impressed adaxially, base subrounded or cuneate, margin serrulate, apex acuminate or acute, rarely obtuse, often mucronulate. Flowers yellow-green, sessile, glabrous, usually 1-5-fascicled, lax or crowded, in more than 20 cm terminal or axillary spicate panicles; rachis glabrous or sparsely puberulent. Sepals triangular or triangular-ovate, 1.3-1.5 mm, adaxially keeled and hooded. Petals white, spatulate, ca. 0.8 mm, shorter than stamens, apex emarginate. Stamens shorter than sepals; anthers acute, mucronulate. Disk thick, fleshy, surrounding ovary. Ovary 2-or 3-loculed, with 1 ovule per locule; style short, stout; stigma entire. Drupe red when mature, obovoid-globose, 6-7 mm in diam. Seeds obliquely cordate, 5-6 mm. Fl. Jul-Oct, fr. Feb-May of following year.
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