Shrub to 2 m tall; twigs glabrous, drying with a glaucous appearance. Leaves 8-20 cm long and 1.5-8 cm wide, elliptical to narrowly lanceolate, mostly widest at the middle or above, the base and apex acuminate, basally sometimes narrowed almost to the base of the petiole, mostly glabrous but sometimes with fine, minute hairs along the principal veins. Inflorescences opposite the leaves but sometimes aggregated near the ends of the branches and appearing terminal, the peduncle simple or once-branched ca. 1 cm above the base, the fallen flowers leaving a congested or scattered cicatrix; pedicels filiform, in flower aggregated to appear umbellate, to 1 cm long but mostly shorter, in fruit thickening, elongating and stiffening but not becoming stout, the thickening even along the length. Flowers small, the young calyx almost enclosing the bud and bearing short but distinct teeth, glabrous, splitting deeply at the sutures before corolla emergence, the margins becoming irregular and indistinct, not much enlarging in fruit; corolla white, often drying a yellowish-orange, ca. 5 mm long, lobed nearly to the base; anthers oblongoid, 2-3 mm long. Fruits ca. 8 mm across.
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