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Leaves with a short, glabrous, 1–7 mm. long petiole; lamina dark green above, mat or dull and paler beneath, papyraceous or thinly coriaceous, membranaceous when young (in flowering branches), variable in shape and size, elliptic, narrowly elliptic, ovate, or narrowly ovate, 1·5–3(3·5) times as long as wide, 6–15 x 3–9 cm.,in the shade up to 19·5 x 11 cm., acute, acuminate, or sometimes, especially in young shoots, subcordate at the base, glabrous on both sides; two pairs of distinct mostly pale green secondary veins from or from above the base curved along the margin, not reaching the apex; tertiary venation mostly pale green, reticulate.
A shrub or tree. It can be 5-15 m high. The bark is pale grey or silver-grey. The leaves are oval and 6-15 cm long by 3-9 cm wide. They are thin in texture. They are glossy green above and paler underneath. The flowers are whitish to yellowish-green. They are 5 mm long. They occur in 2-5 flowered heads on very slender stalks. Several heads occur together forming a spiky looking cluster. The fruit are round and softly fleshy. They are smooth and 2 cm across.
Corolla in the mature bud (3)3·5–5(6) times as long as the calyx, (4)4·5–7·5 mm. long, white, creamy, or yellow, outside glabrous, inside pilose with white hairs on the base of the lobes and often also in the throat; tube very variable in length and width, (0·8)1–2·5(3·2) times as long as the calyx, 1–3·5 mm. long, at the throat 1·5–3 mm. wide; lobes 1–3 times as long as the tube, oblong, 2–4·3 x as long as wide, 3–4·5 x (0·8)1–2·2 mm., acute, spreading.
Tree, 5-14 m high. Growing point modified into spinelike tip, 1-3 mm long. Leaves and branchlets glabrous. Modified leaves near base of branchlets deciduous, leaving a ring mark. Leaves up to 170 mm long. Inflorescence glabrous, lateral. Calyx not petaloid, lobes longer than broad. Fruit small, 17 mm in diameter. Flowers green.
Stamens exserted; filaments glabrous, longer in flowers with shorter corolla tube (like in S. decussata), 0·5–1·7 times as long as the anthers, 1–2·5 mm. long, inserted at the mouth of the corolla tube; anthers oblong, mostly about twice as long as wide, 1–1·2 x (0·3)0·6–1 mm., glabrous.
Sepals dark green, connate at the base, subequal, variable in shape and size, ovate, broadly ovate, or sometimes oblong (1)1·3–2 times as long as wide, 1–2·2(2·5) x 0·7–1·5 mm., acute or less often acuminate at the apex, not ciliate, glabrous on both sides, without colleters.
Pistil glabrous, (3·5)4·4–6 mm. long; ovary ovoid or conical, 1·2–1·5 times as long as wide, 1·2 x 0·8–1·4 mm., 2–celled; style rather thick, (2·5)2·7–4·3 mm. long; stigma often small, capitate or occasionally obscurely bilobed.
Branches often repeatedly dichotomously branched, pale to very dark brown, distinctly lenticellate, terete, not or slightly sulcate when dry, with protruding persistent cup–like petiole–bases; branchlets glabrous.
Inflorescence in the axils of small scales at the bases of the branchlets, solitary, lax or rather congested, 1·5–2·5 x 1–2 x branched. Peduncle, branches, and pedicels slender, glabrous.
Bark pale grey or grey–brown, smooth, lenticellate, thin, in section green on the periphery and orange or buff towards the centre; wood pale yellowish–brown, with bark–islets.
Seed slightly glossy, pale brown, depressed–globose or ellipsoid, 10 x 9 x 6–13 x 12·5 x 9 mm., with an obscurely angular line all around, densely sericeous, smooth.
Fruit blue–black, small, cherry–like, soft, globose, (10)15–25 mm. in diam., 1–seeded, with smooth skin, shining. Wall thin, dry about 0–3 mm. thick. Pulp purplish.
Deciduous much branched small or medium sized tree or sometimes shrub, (2)4–18 m. high trunk 20–100 cm. d.b.h.
Flowers (4–)5–merous, variable in shape and size, appearing before or with the young leaves.
Apex of branchlet modified into a spine–like, 1–3 mm. long apex.
In each cell 5–13 ovules.
