Shrubs ca. 2 m tall. Young branchlets glabrous, sparsely puberulent, or densely brown pubescent; old branchlets lenticellate. Leaves clustered at branchlet apex; petiole 8–15 mm; leaf blade green and shiny adaxially, becoming yellow-green after drying, obovate, oblanceolate, narrowly lanceolate, or beltlike, rarely oblong, 7–15 × 1–4 cm, thinly leathery, glabrous or pubescent abaxially, lateral veins (4–)6–8-paired, convex abaxially, prominent adaxially, reticulate veins indistinct, base cuneate, usually decurrent, margin flat, entire, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescences in leaf axils at branchlet apex, 1–4-flowered, glabrescent to densely hairy; bracts small, deciduous; pedicels 2–3 mm, glabrous or shortly pilose. Sepals ovate, ca. 3 mm, glabrous or margin ciliate, rarely pilose. Petals 15–17 × 2–3 mm. Stamens 10–14 mm. Pistil ca. 1 cm; ovary long ovoid, densely brown villous; placentas (2 or)3; ovules 8–10; stipe 1–2.5 mm; style 3–4 mm, glabrous. Capsule pear-shaped, ellipsoid, or long ellipsoid, 2–3 cm, dehiscing by (2 or)3 valves; pericarp thinly leathery, rough abaxially, horizontally striate adaxially; stipe 5–8 mm. Seeds 3 or 4 in each valve, pale red after drying, compressed rounded, 6–7 mm; funicle 3–4 mm. Fl. Feb–May, fr. May–Oct.

This species differs from Pittosporum glabratum var. neriifolium in having a pubescent ovary.

Forests, thickets, slopes, river sides, shady places; 500--2700 (--3000) m. Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [NE India, Myanmar, N Vietnam].