Evergreen trees, to 12 m high; spines straight, solitary or in pairs; bark grey, longitudinally fissured, lenticellate; inner bark straw to pinkish; blaze yellowish; branchlets at first green, angular, compressed, the innovation dull or fuscous; later cylindric. Leaves simple, alternate, estipulate; petiole 8-15 mm long, stout, glabrous; lamina 4.5-12.5 x 2-5.5 cm, elliptic or elliptic-oblong, base oblique, acute or cuneate, apex round or emarginate, margin entire or crenulate, undulate, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 6-8 pairs, slender, pinnate, intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, small, white, fragrant, in axillary racemes; pedicels slender, glabrous; sepals 4 or 5, deltoid, glandular, glabrous; petals 4 or 5, free, oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, recurved, prominently nerved, glandular, glabrous, pure white; stamens 8 or 10, subequal, filaments free, subulate; anthers linear-oblong, cordate; disc obscure; ovary on a short gynophore, superior, 4-5-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; style stout; stigma capitate or truncate, glandular. Fruit a berry, globose, orange-coloured when ripe, glandular; seeds 4-10, embedded in mucilage.