Evergreen small or medium-sized trees, up to 12 m tall, ca. 40 cm d.b.h. Branchlets densely brown tomentose. Leaves alternate or subverticillate; petiole 2-25 mm, densely brown tomentose; leaf blade oblong, oblong-lanceolate, narrowly lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 5-22 × 1.2-6 cm, pubescent abaxially and villous along midrib and lateral veins, glabrous adaxially, lateral veins 10-20 pairs, transverse veinlets conspicously prominent abaxially, base cuneate or rounded, apex obtuse, shortly acuminate, caudate-acute, or long caudate-acute. Umbels solitary, rarely clustered, 4- or 5-flowered per umbel; peduncle absent or to 10 mm. Male flowers: pedicel sericeous-villous; perianth segments 6, ovate; fertile stamens 9-12; filaments villous, of 3rd or 4th whorls each with 2 sessile rounded glands at base; rudimentary pistil glabrous. Fruit oblong, 11-13 × 7-8 mm, seated on cup-shaped perianth tube, black-purple at maturity; fruiting pedicel 2-3 mm. Fl. May-Nov, fr. Feb-Jun.

This species is variable in the size and shape of its leaves, especially in repeatedly disturbed secondary forests or dense thickets.

Roadsides, streamsides, weed-tree forests on mountain slopes, shady moist places, sparse forests, thickets; 500-2300 m. Anhui, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [India, Nepal].