Tall shrub or tree to c. 10 m high, young stems with spreading, gland-tipped hairs, bark flaky. Leaves ovate to obovate, 3–9 cm long, 15–35 mm wide, thickish, dark green and glabrous above, paler and sometimes with scattered fine bristles along the midvein below; margins serrate (rarely entire). Flowers in racemes or panicles 2–9 cm long; bracts acute, 2–5 mm long, continuous with rachis; sepals broad-deltoid, obtuse, c. 1.5 mm long; corolla 8–10 mm long, waxy, white or pinkish, with rounded, strongly recurved lobes 0.5–1 mm long. Berry orange-red when ripe, 13–20 mm diam., the skin roughened by conical tubercles. Seeds flattened-ellipsoid, somewhat winged. Flowers May–Aug.