Evergreen trees, to 10 m high, bark surface dark grey to nearly black, rough with short vertical cracks. Leaves simple, opposite, 3.7-12 x 2-4 cm, elliptic, elliptic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate, apex acute, base acute or round, margin entire, glabrous, shiny above and glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-13 pairs, pinnate, faint, intercostae reticulate, obscure; petiole 12-18 mm long, slender, glabrous, grooved above. Flowers bisexual, 5-6 mm across, reddish-purple, in axillary and terminal paniculate cymes, much shorter than leaves. Tepals 5, basally connate into a campanulate tube of 2 mm long, shortly connate to the basal part of the ovary; lobes 2.5 x 1.5 mm, ovate, thin, fleshy, glaucescent without, minutely ciliate; disc concave, adhering to the bottom of perianth, its lobes alternates with tepals. Stamens 5, alternates with disc; filaments 1 mm; anthers 0.7 mm, ovoid, 2-celled. Ovary superior later half inferior at the time of flowering, globose, 1 mm, 1-celled, ovules 2-3, pendulous from below the long, acuminate, central column; style 1.5 mm, stigma 3 lobed. Fruit a drupe, 8-12 mm across, globose, blackish-purple, annulate above, beaked with the basal part of the style; seed one.