Shrub to c. 50 cm tall, usually forming a dense low thicket with underground rhizomes and numerous aerial ascending stems. Shoots hirsute and glandular when young. Lvs alternate; petioles 2-5 mm long. Lamina 4-7 × 3-4.5 cm, ovate to suborbicular, with glandular hairs when young, glabrous and coriaceous when mature, serrulate with glandular teeth; base subcordate to cordate; apex mucronate or shortly cuspidate. Racemes subterminal, to c. 10 cm long, reddish, ± viscid with glandular hairs. Bracts mostly 7-10 mm long, ovate, mucronate, reddish, > pedicels. Calyx c. 3 mm long; lobes triangular-ovate, reddish. Corolla c. 8 mm long, urceolate, with glandular hairs outside, whitish or pale pink; lobes small and revolute. Filaments hairy; anthers with 4 apical awns c. 1.5 mm long. Style = or slightly > corolla tube. Frs purplish black and berry-like but not seen in N.Z. specimens.