Glab. shrub or tree up to 6 m. or more tall; trunk up to 3 dm. diam. Branchlets slender, becoming striate, dark purple. Petioles ± 1 cm. long; lamina coriac., 2-7 × 1·5-3·5 cm., elliptic to oval to obovate, obtuse to acute to subacuminate (all forms may occur on same plant) cuneately narrowed to base; margins coarsely serrate; surface glossy dark green above, paler below. Spikes oppositely and openly branched, slender; branches ± 3 cm. long. Fls alt., subtended by deltoid to broad-ovate acute bract and a lateral smaller pair. Anther cylindric, ± 2.5 mm. long; ♀ solitary or 2 to 3 together; ovary sessile; stigma broad, sessile; fr. broadly ovoid, ± 2.5 mm. long.