Ardisia austroasiatica E. Walker; A. depressa C. B. Clarke; A. floribunda Wallich (1824), not Roemer & Schultes (1819); A. meziana H. Léveillé (1912), not King & Gamble (1906); A. neriifolia Wallich; A. tenera Mez; A. yunnanensis Mez; Tinus depressa (C. B. Clarke) Kuntze; T. thyrsiflora (D. Don) Kuntze.

Shrubs or small trees 1.5-5(-9) m tall, densely brown scaly on branchlets, petioles, and inflorescences. Branchlets terete, 2-3 mm in diam. Petiole canaliculate, ca. 1 cm; leaf blade narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, 12-20(-22) × 2-4.5 (-6) cm, papery, glossy, densely and minutely scrobiculate adaxially, glabrous or minutely rusty brown scaly abaxially glabrescent, pellucid punctate, base cuneate or narrowly decurrent, margin entire, apex long acuminate, acumen 1.5-2 cm; lateral veins numerous, obscure abaxially, marginal vein absent. Inflorescences terminal or subterminal, paniculate, branches corymbose, 10-20 cm. Flowers papery, pink or purplish red, ca. 4 mm. Pedicel erect, ca. 5 mm. Sepals ovate to elliptic, 1.3-1.5 mm, orange punctate, brown scaly abaxially, pubescent adaxially, margin ciliate, apex acute. Petals nearly free, ovate, 3.8-4 mm, sparsely orange punctate, glabrous, margin entire, apex acute. Stamens subequal to petals; filaments ca. 1.5 mm; anthers ovate to lanceolate, ca. 1.5 mm, punctate dorsally, apiculate. Ovary glabrous; ovules numerous, multiseriate. Fruit purplish red, globose, often 5-angled, ca. 4 mm in diam., minutely punctate. Fl. Jan-May, fr. Apr-Dec.

Broad-leaved forests, woody hillsides, valleys, damp places, thickets; 200-1500 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan [India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam]