A tall shrub or a small tree; young branches often spiny, bearing leaves and flowers. Leaves grey, coriaceous, glabrous, very variable, obovate, oblanceolate or linear-spathulate, obtuse, entire or crenulate, decurrent at the base, 0.5-4.5 x 0.4-2 cm; petioles c. 3 mm long. Flower small in axillary, dichotomous or fasciculate cymes on short branchlets, often forming terminal, elongate panicles. Pedicels filiform; bracts small, lanceolate, acute. Calyx lobes broadly elliptic-oblong, ciliate. Petals oblong. Disc fleshy, many lobed. Ovary glabrous, orbicular; style deeply 2-3-cleft. Capsules globose, 4-5 mm broad, bivalved, purple. Seeds chestnut brown; arillode orange.

Fl. Per.: October.

Type: Described from Senegal.

Distribution: Tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia.

The root bark is used locally to treat dysentery. An oil of some medicinal value is extracted from the seeds and known as Oleum Nigrum or Black oil.