Shrubs or trees, to 8 m. Stems armed, sericeous, glabrescent. Leaves deciduous or persistent; petiole 3-10 mm, sparsely to densely villous (hairs tawny or reddish brown to brown); blade (dull to lustrous adaxially), oblanceolate to spatulate, 23-64 × 6-22 mm, base cuneate to attenuate, margins plane, apex rounded to obtuse or retuse, abaxial surface densely sericeous (hairs tawny or reddish brown to brown), venation obscured by hairs, adaxial surface glabrous or glabrate, midrib flat or slightly sunken, marginal vein absent. Inflorescences 8-40-flowered. Pedicels 4-12 mm, sericeous (hairs tawny or reddish brown to brown). Flowers: calyx 1.4-2.2 mm diam.; sepals 5, 2-2.5 × 1.4-1.8 mm, sericeous (hairs tawny or reddish brown to brown); petals 5, white, median segment elliptic to obovate, 1.7-1.8 mm, lateral segments lanceolate, 1.5-1.8 mm; stamens 5, 2-2.3 mm; staminodes broadly lanceolate, 1.3-1.8 mm, entire; anthers sagittate, 0.7-1 mm; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular, 0.9-1.3 mm, glabrous or strigose distally; style 0.7-0.9 mm. Berries purplish black, ellipsoid to obovoid, 8-13 mm, glabrous. Seeds 8-12 mm.
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A shrub or small tree. The crown is spreading. The branches are tough and flexible. They often have straight stout spines. It grows 6 m tall. The trunk is 10 cm across. The leaves are evergreen except in cooler places. They are alternate or clustered in short side twigs. The leaves are 2.5-6 cm long and 1-3 cm wide. They are sword shaped with rounded tips and tapering to the base. The are widest above the middle. They are dark green above and yellowish or pale underneath. The flowers are 3 mm wide. They are bell shaped and green. The fruit are 10-12 mm long and a black berry. They have a thin sweet pulp and one seed.
Dry sandy soils, in sand-pine forests and with coastal oak. Dry, sandy soils in pine forests, pine-oak scrub, and hammocks on coastal plain; at elevations up to 100 metres.
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It grows in dry sandy soil usually near the coast. It the SE of the USA they grow to 30 m altitude.
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