Trees, up to 28 m tall, to 70 cm d.b.h. Bark gray. Old branchlets subterete, finely striate, yellow-brown when dry, glabrous; young branchlets slender, terete, ca. 3 mm in diam., striate, finely yellowish brown pubescent near top but glabrate on lower part. Leaves alternate; petiole 1.5-2.5 cm, concave-convex, glabrous; leaf blade brownish green abaxially and brown-green adaxially when dry, usually oblong, occasionally ovate or ovate-oblong, 7-19 × 3.2-10 cm, thinly leathery, glabrous and opaque on both surfaces, lateral veins 5-7 pairs, lateral veins and midrib ± conspicuous abaxially, plane adaxially, transverse veins and veinlets reticulate, ± conspicuous on both surfaces, base broadly cuneate to rounded, apex shortly acuminate. Panicles axillary and terminal, sometimes few flowered, much shorter than leaf blade, 2-4 cm, sometimes many flowered, nearly 1/2 as long as leaf blade or more, 5.5-12 cm, in latter case always much branched, branches slender and up to 4 cm; peduncle 1-5.5 cm, peduncle and rachis finely pubescent, always reddish. Pedicels 1-2 mm, densely finely pubescent. Flowers greenish white, ca. 3 mm. Perianth pubescent outside and inside; perianth tube turbinate, ca. 1.5 mm; perianth lobes oblong-ovate, ca. 1.5 mm. Fertile stamens 9, ca. 1.5 mm; filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl each with 2 long-stalked orbicular-reniform glands at base, others glandless; anthers 2-celled, those of 1st and 2nd whorls oblong, slightly shorter than filaments, with introrse cells, those of 3rd whorl ovate-oblong and with lateral-extrorse cells. Staminodes narrowly sagittate-triangular, shortly stalked. Ovary clavate, including style nearly 3 mm; stigma capitate, inconspicuous. Fruit green when young but black-purple when mature, ovoid, ca. 16 × 12 mm when mature, glabrous, inconspicuously 12-angulate, attenuate at base, apex subrounded. Fl. Mar-Apr, fr. May-Jun.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests in valleys, sparse secondary forests, mountain slopes, riverbanks; 500-1100 m. S Yunnan.