Shrubs 1.5-3 m tall. Branchlets slightly 4-angled when young, becoming terete, glabrous. Petiole 2-7 cm, glabrous; leaf blade ± black when dry, lanceolate, elliptic-lanceolate, or elliptic, 7-21 X 2-7 cm, papery, subglabrous, base cuneate to broadly cuneate, margin entire, slightly undulate, or irregularly dentate, apex acuminate to caudate; veins 7 or 8 pairs, abaxially prominent. Inflorescences racemosely arranged thyrses, slightly pendulous, 9-15 cm; peduncle slender, glabrous; bracts linear, lanceolate, or elliptic-lanceolate, 0.5-1.7 cm. Calyx purplish, 6-9 mm, glabrous; lobes ovate-oblong, 4-6 mm. Corolla white, yellowish, or rarely purplish, tube 1-1.9 cm, outside puberulent; lobes ovate, 6-8 mm. Stamens and styles exserted. Fruiting calyx purple, enlarged. Drupes black, globose, 1-1.2 cm in diam. Fl. and fr. Sep-Jan.

* Forests on mountain slopes or along valleys; 700-1200 m. SW Yunnan.