Shrubs to 1 m tall. Primary branches turning yellow or brownish in second year, terete, slender, irregularly rugulose, pilose or sericeous, glabrescent. Leaves opposite or subopposite, rarely alternate; leaf blade dark green adaxially, paler abaxially, ovate, elliptic-ovate, or elliptic, 1.5-4 × 0.7-2 cm, membranous, abaxially sericeous, adaxially pilose, base broadly cuneate, rounded, or truncate, margin revolute, apex acute or shortly acuminate; lateral veins 3-5 pairs, raised. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, capitate becoming spicate, ca. as long as or longer than leaves, puberulous; peduncle 0.5-1 cm. Pedicel short. Calyx yellow; tube cylindric, 8-10 mm, 10-ribbed, exterior densely pilose; lobes 5, ovate, 1-1.2 × ca. 0.4 mm, apex rounded. Stamens 10, lower whorl inserted above middle of calyx tube, upper whorl near throat, subsessile; anthers oblong, ca. 1 mm; upper ones almost exserted from calyx tube. Disk scale 1, linear, 1-2 mm. Ovary clavate, ca. 2.5 mm, pilose; style ca. 0.4 mm; stigma capitate. Drupe reddish, fusiform, ca. 8 mm, enclosed in persistent calyx. Fl. autumn, fr. winter.
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