Slender, sparingly branched shrub up to 2.5 m tall. Old stems dark reddish brown; branchlets spreading; bracts present; stems and petioles of new growth distinctively crimson-red. Fine ginger hairs present in leaf axils. Leaves on rather slender, crimson-red, or occasionally pale brown petioles 1 cm long becoming reddish brown with age; lamina submembranous, ovate-elliptic, linear-lanceolate, moderately shiny, bright mid green above with a pale mid-vein, glaucous below; margins sub-entire, weakly dentate to coarsely and distantly lobed, the different forms occasionally on the same plant. Inflorescence of 2-6 fascicles or flowers solitary. Peduncle slender, 5 mm long, greenish, bracteolate. Calyx lobes (3-)5(-6), triangular, acute. Flowers hermaphrodite, very fragrant, protandrous; corolla tube (7.7-)11(--13.7) mm long, slightly flaring, cream, creamy green, pale dusky pink, dark dusky pink, and variations of these; lobes (3-)5(-6), acute, often recurved and often with fimbriate margins. Style slender, cream to pink, glabrous; stigma clavate, usually exserted. Anthers creamy white on short filaments inserted in corolla throat, dehiscing longitudinally and curving outwards after dehiscence. Pollen grains 3-aperturate, colporate. Berry ellipsoid, dark plum-red when ripe, 2.8- 9.7 mm long. Seeds with bony reticulate testa, endospermic, angular. Ovary 2-locular, glabrous; ovules 1-15 per locule; placentation axile. FL Sep-Oct; FT Mar-May.