Erect shrubs, sometimes reaching the size of a small tree, 2-5 (-8) m tall, deciduous, with grey bark. Leaves (4-)5-15(-18) cm long, (2-) 2.5-10 cm broad, ovate, acuminate, obscurely toothed, drying green, glabrescent above, minutely villous beneath, with 4-6 prais of lateral veins; petiole (5-)10-20(-25) mm long. Panicles terminal, trichotomous, vinous, short, not exceeding the leaves, 3-6 cm across. Flowers c. 3 mm across, greenish; bracts small, linear, deciduous. Calyx c. 2 mm long, subequally 4-lobed, hardly or not enlarged in fruit but persistent. Corolla 3-4 mm long, sub-bilabiate with 4, short, spreading lobes, tube c. as long as the calyx, hairy in the throat. Drupe 4-5 mm in diameter, globose or somewhat obovoid, glabrous, somewhat verrucose.
Fl. Per.: April-May.
Type: Himalayas, Bhutan, Wallich 1768 (K-W).
Distribution: Sub-Himalayan tracts, India. Pakistan, Bhutan and Bangla Desh.
Rare and undercollected in our area, sometimes planted. Wood is used as fuel due to its hardness.
A similar taxon, Premna latifolia Roxb. var. mucronate (Roxb.) Clarke (in Hook. f., l.c. 578), with leaves drying blackish and calyx 5-toothed, much enlarged in fruit, occurring in the same range as this species, has been reported by Parker (l.c.).
