Shrubs 2–3 m tall. Young branchlets glabrous; old branchlets lenticellate. Leaves clustered at branchlet apex, biennial; petiole 6–14 mm; leaf blade pale green and glabrous abaxially, green and shiny adaxially, obovate to narrowly so, oblong, oblanceolate, narrowly lanceolate, or beltlike, 3.5–18 × 1–5.5 cm, thinly leathery, lateral veins 5–8-paired, slightly prominent abaxially, slightly convex after drying, along with reticulate veins indistinct adaxially, base cuneate, margin flat, sometimes slightly rugose, apex truncate to obtuse or acute. Inflorescences 1–4 in leaf axils at branchlet apex, umbellate or corymbose, many flowered; bracts lanceolate, ca. 3 mm; pedicels 4–12 mm, puberulous or glabrous. Sepals ovate, ca. 2 mm, margin usually ciliate. Petals free, oblanceolate, 8–12 mm. Stamens (4–)6–7 mm. Ovary long ovoid, glabrous; placentas 3; ovules ca. 6 in each placenta. Style ca. 3 mm; stigmas slightly enlarged. Capsule ellipsoid, 2–2.5 cm, sometimes long tubelike and then 3–3.2 × 1–2 cm, dehiscing by 3 valves; pericarp thinly leathery; pedicel short and strong; style persistent. Seeds 6 or 7 per placenta, red, subglobose, 5–7 × 4–5 mm; funicle ca. 3 mm. Fl. Mar–Aug, fr. Jun–Dec.

Records of Pittosporum glabratum from India (e.g., by Rehder and Wilson in Sargent, Pl. Wilson 3: 328. 1916) are based on misidentified plants of P. podocarpum.

Forests, thickets, slopes, valleys, river sides; 200--2000 m. Fujian, S Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan [Vietnam].