Shrubs. Young branchlets gray-brown, stout, lenticellate. Leaves clustered at branchlet apex, biennial; petiole stout, 1–2 cm; leaf blade dark green and shiny adaxially, obovate or obovate-lanceolate, 10–14 × 3–5 cm, thickly leathery, glabrous abaxially, lateral veins 8–10-paired, conspicuously convex abaxially, concave adaxially, base narrowly cuneate, margin flat, slightly reflexed after drying, apex rounded. Inflorescences terminal, paniculate, ca. 10 cm, brown pubescent; peduncle 8–15 mm; pedicels 5–10 mm. Sepals slightly connate at base, ovate, ca. 3 mm, glabrous or margin rarely ciliate. Petals oblong, 1–1.2 cm. Stamens ca. 7 mm; filament compressed linear. Ovary brown pubescent; stipe short. Style short, ca. 2 mm, glabrous; stigmas capitate. Capsule oblate, 2–2.5 cm in diam., dehiscing by 2 valves; pericarp thickly woody, ca. 3 mm thick, horizontally striate adaxially; placentas 2, parietal. Seeds ca. 7 mm. Fl. Feb–Apr, fr. Mar–Nov.

This species is close to Pittosporum littorale Merrill (from the Philippines), which differs in having inflorescences corymbose and capsules 4–5 cm in diam. It is also related to P. moluccanum (Lamarck) Miquel (from Indonesia and Malaysia), which differs in having leaf blades acute at the apex, and inflorescences corymbose, short, and small.

Low broad-leaved forests, thickets along seashores, trailsides near lakes; sea level to 200 m. S Taiwan (including Lan Yu).