Shrubs or small trees, evergreen, 1-10 m tall. Young branchlets subquadrangular, longitudinally angular and sulcate, puberulent or densely pubescent; older branchlets with raised, lunate leaf scars, lenticels absent; terminal buds conical, pubescent. Stipules persistent, ovate-deltoid, 1-2.5 mm, apically acute; petiole (2-)4-7 mm, adaxially shallowly sulcate, pubescent; leaf blade olivaceous when dry, ovate, ovate-lanceolate, ovate-elliptic, ovate-oblong, or elliptic, rarely sublanceolate, (2-)3-8 × (1-)2-4 cm, leathery, abaxially opaquely yellow-brown punctate, glabrous to densely pubescent, midvein adaxially flat or slightly impressed, densely pubescent, lateral veins 6 or 7 pairs, evident or not on both surfaces, reticulate veins indistinct, base cuneate to obtuse, margin serrate, rarely minutely crenate on distal half, apex acuminate or shortly acuminate to acute. Inflorescences: cymes, solitary, axillary at scales on current year’s branchlets, rarely fasciculate; flowers white or pink, 4- or 5-merous. Male inflorescences: cymes of order 1-3, 1-7-flowered; peduncles 4-12 mm; bract 1, basal, deltoid; pedicels 2-3 mm, 1-flowered pedicels 3-5 mm, bracteoles 2, basal or submedian; calyx patelliform, 2-2.5 mm in diam., glabrous or sparsely puberulent, 4-7-lobed, lobes ovate-deltoid, margin erose or dentate, sparsely ciliate; corolla rotate, petals 4 or 5, ovate, ca. 2.5 × 2 mm, basally slightly connate; stamens shorter than petals, anthers ovoid-oblong; rudimentary ovary compressed globose, rostellate. Female inflorescences: 1-flowered cymes; pedicels 8-10 mm, bracteoles 2, median; flowers 4-merous; calyx patelliform, ca. 3 mm in diam., shallowly 4-lobed, lobes orbicular, margin erose; corolla erect, ca. 4 mm in diam., petals ovate, ca. 2.5 mm, basally slightly connate; staminodes ca. 1/5 as long as petals, sterile anthers sagittate; ovary subglobose, ca. 1.5 mm in diam., stigma thickly discoid, convex. Fruit black, rarely yellow, globose or depressed globose, (5-)6 mm, (5-)7-8 mm in diam.; persistent calyx explanate, 3-4 mm in diam.; persistent stigma thickly discoid, ca. 1 mm in diam., 4-lobed; pyrenes 4, oblong or subglobose, (3-)4.5-5 mm, (2-)3.5-4 mm in diam., abaxially smooth, inconspicuously thinly striate, not sulcate, endocarp leathery. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Aug-Oct.

● Evergreen broad-leaved forests, mountain forests, sparse forests, thickets, shrub forests, stream banks, roadsides on hills or mountains; (200-)400-2500 m. Chongqing, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, SE Xizang (Zayü), Yunnan.