A deciduous tree up to 10 m tall. Young shoots glabrescent. Leaves 5-16 x 2.8-5.5 (-6.5) cm, elliptic-oblong, acuminate, cuneate, serrulate, glabrous, midrib prominent on undersurface, nerves pubescent. Petiole up to 2.5 cm long. Flowers white, in terminal pubescent panicles, up to 18 cm long, sessile. Calyx ± cupular, c. 1.5 mm long; lobes 5, obtuse, ciliate. Corolla rotate. Limb 5-lobed, ± 2.2 mm long, oblong, minutely crenulate. Filaments shorter than lobes, glabrous; and c. 1.2 mm long, basifixed, oblong. Style c. 1.5 mm long, 2-fid. Ovary subglobose to ± ovoid, c. 1.1 mm long, glabrous. Drupe globose, 4-43 mm broad, black when ripe. Seeds 2.

Fl. Per.: March-May.

Type: ‘in Bengalo Orientali, Silhet etc.’ Roxburgh s.n. (CAL).

Distribution: The subhimalayan and the outer Himalaya from Indus eastward to Sikkim.

Frequently planted as a roadside tree, and sometimes found as an escape up to 2000 m. Brandis (1874, p. 340) states that the young fruit is pickled.