Evergreen shrubs or trees, up to 15 m tall. Branchlets puberulent, subglabrous, or appressed pubescent. Leaves opposite or subopposite, rarely alternate on same tree; petiole 8-10 mm, hairy like branchlets; leaf blade usually elliptic, oblong, or obovate, 5-14 × 2-4.5 cm, glabrous or subglabrous on both surfaces or densely gray-yellow pubescent abaxially, lateral veins 5 or 6 pairs, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, often red in a dried state, apex acuminate, obtuse, or slightly rounded. Umbels often in cluster of 3-8, axillary, 3-flowered; peduncle short, pubescent. Male flowers: pedicel very short; perianth segments 6, spatulate; fertile stamens 9; filaments pilose, of 3rd whorls each with 2 yellow subsessile rounded small glands at base. Fruit globose, 7-8 mm in diam., seated on discoid perianth tube, black at maturity; fruiting pedicel extremely stout and short. Fl. May-Nov, fr. Sep-May of next year.

Broad-leaved forests, streamsides, dense forests on mountain slopes; 300-1700 m. Guangdong, S and W Guangxi, Hainan, SE Yunnan [Laos, N Thailand, Vietnam].