Shrubs or trees, 1-6 m tall, glabrous. Older stems grayish brown, slightly striate; branchlets often deciduous, produced in succession from short shoots, bark purplish brown with white lenticels, contrasting sharply with much thicker older stems, with rounded deciduous bud scales at base. Petiole 3-6 mm; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, 5-10 × 1.5-4 cm, papery to ± leathery, base cuneate and unequal, apex acuminate; veins 3-5 on each side of midvein. Inflorescences 0.5-1.5 cm, (1 or)2-4-flowered; peduncle base without bud scales. Pedicel absent; bracteole 1, at base of flower. Calyx obcampanulate. Corolla pink, urceolate; tube 6-10 mm, throat narrower; lobes ovate, 2-4 mm, apex acute. Stamens (4 or)5; filaments coherent to corolla tube; anthers free, slightly exserted from corolla throat. Disk epigynous, pulvinate. Style 5-9 mm, shorter than or as long as corolla tube. Drupe red to purple, blackish in age, ellipsoid, 1-1.5 × 0.5-0.6 cm. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. Apr-Jul.
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