Shrubs 1-4 m tall. Branchlets densely yellow pubescent especially on nodes when young, becoming dark brown to gray-yellow and glabrous. Leaves opposite or in threes; petiole to 5 cm or leaf subsessile; leaf blade oblong, obovate-oblong, elliptic, or ovate, 6-30 2.5-11 cm, papery, pubescent, margin subentire to serrulate or sparsely coarse serrate, apex acuminate to acute; veins 10 or 11 pairs, abaxially prominent. Inflorescences terminal thyrses, densely yellow-brown pubescent, cymes sometimes monochasial; bracts sessile, ovate to broadly ovate, 1.5-4.5 0.5-1.8 cm, pubescent; bractlets lanceolate to ovate. Calyx ca. 5 mm, truncate to minutely 5-dentate, pubescent. Corolla white, bluish, or purplish, tube ca. 7 mm; lobes oblong to obovate, 6-12 mm. Stamens ca. 2-4 cm, long exserted, base pubescent. Ovary glabrous. Style long exserted. Drupes green when young, becoming black, subglobose. Fl. and fr. Jun-Dec.

Medicinal.

200-1800 m. Guangxi, Guizhou, Xizang, Yunnan [E Africa, S and SE Asia]