Shrub, climbing to suberect with slender, finely pubescent branches. Leaves oblong or ovate-elliptic, 5-20 cm long, 3-10 cm broad, entire, acute, subcordate at the base; petiole 2-8 cm long. Umbellate cymes terminal, many flowered. Flowers red or white with pinkish or reddish centre, fragrant; bracts subulate. Calyx cupular, deeply cleft into 5 lobes; lobes ovate, c. 1 cm long, whitish, acute. Corolla-tube puberulous, 5-lobed; lobes shorter than tube, acute. Drupe bluish-black, breaking into 4 pyrenes at maturity, enclosed by red calyx.

Fl. Per.: Nov. Jan.

Type: “Cette plante croit enAfrique, oil elle a ete observee & recueillie par Smeathman. Je I’ai decrite sur un simple rameau communique au citoyen Lamarck par le citoyen Beauvais”.

Distribution: Tropical Africa, India and Indonesia.

Sometimes cultivated in Karachi gardens for its handsome, umbellate inflorescence. The bitter leaves and their juice are used medicinally in Ghana etc.