Shrub, to c. 1.4 m tall. Branches erect; old stems mottled grey, or brown; youngest branchlets brown, or red-brown, or green (especially very youngest); internodes 1.5-15 mm long; leaf- base scars evident; stem pubescence bifarious or uniform (hairs on decurrencies often less densely distributed and somewhat finer). Leaf bud about as long as mature leaves with leaves of a pair separating when mature; sinus absent. Leaves free at base, erecto-patent (mostly) to patent or recurved (with age); lamina oblong-elliptic (mostly) or lanceolate 3.5-9 mm wide; apex subacute or obtuse; base cuneate; evident venation in fresh leaves consisting of midrib only or of midrib and 2 secondary laterals arising from base; midrib thickened beneath and depressed to grooved above; margin not thickened, or oblanceolate (rarely), (13-)20-38(45) m long, light green or yellowish green, bevelled, glabrous or ciliolate (especially toward apex), entire; adaxial surface dark green, glossy, with dense stomata (but these are often not especially evident in fresh leaves); abaxial surface green, dull, densely covered with stomata, glabrous or sometimes covered with minute glandular hairs (when young). Inflorescences with c. 25-45 flowers, lateral, racemose and unbranched, 2.5-7(-8.5) cm long, longer than subtending leaves, flowers usually opening in acropetal sequence, usually with all flowers (including those near the apex) developing to maturity; peduncle (0.4-)1-2 cm long, pubescent with a mixture of eglandular and glandular hairs (glandular hairs very short); rachis 2.2- 5.6 cm long, pubescent with a mixture of eglandular and glandular hairs; bracts alternate, obtuse to acute, ciliate with both glandular and eglandular hairs, deltoid or ovate; pedicels varying from longer than bracts to shorter than bracts (pedicels are often much shorter on younger flowers toward the apex, even when open), pubescent with both eglandular and glandular hairs, erecto-patent at anthesis, erecto-patent or patent at fruiting, 0.5-3 mm long. Flowers (Fig. 1B) protandrous, those on individual plants all hermaphrodite. Calyx terete, c. 1.5-2.5 mm long, 4- lobed (but occasionally with a 5th, rudimentary, posterior lobe), divisions subequally deep (anterior lobes slightly longer and a little more deeply divided); lobes oblong or lanceolate (posterior usually shorter and broader), obtuse or more rarely subacute, with mixed glandular and eglandular cilia. Corolla white at anthesis, white after pollination; tube hairy inside, c. 0.7-1.2 mm long, shortly funnelform, shorter than calyx; lobes longer than corolla tube, papillate inside and sometimes with a few hairs toward base on inner surface (these sometimes more widespread), margins of corolla lobes glabrous; posterior lobe broadly elliptic or ovate or obovate, obtuse, erect to recurved (slightly), with margin and apex turned upwards; lateral lobes elliptic, obtuse, suberect or patent, with margin and apex turned upwards; anterior lobe elliptic (to oblong-elliptic), obtuse, suberect or patent or recurved, with margin and apex turned upwards, not enfolding style; corolla throat white. Stamen filaments white, incurved at apex in bud, becoming straight at anthesis, diverging after anthesis, (3-)3.5-5 mm long; anthers obtuse, magenta, 1-2 mm long. Nectarial disc glabrous. Ovary ovoid, eglandular hairy (Fig. 1E, mostly 2- or 3-celled hairs that shimmer in polarised light, and also occasionally glandular hairs, but these being short are not readily apparent), c. 0.8-1.1 mm long, 2-locular; ovules 10-14 per locule, marginal in one layer on a flattened placenta (although some slightly overlapping); style 3.5-5 mm long, glabrous, white; stigma yellow at anthesis. Capsules latiseptate, 2- 3.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm thick, septicidal split extending to base, loculicidal split extending 1/3-¾-way to base.

Gemmae foliorum sine sinibus. Folia (13-)20-37.5(-45) mm longa, 3.5- 9 mm lata, super nitido, marginem ciliato (praesertim ad apicem) vel glabro. Inflorescentiae laterales, non ramosae. Flores pedicillati. Corolla alba; tubus circa 0.7-1.2 mm longus, calyce brevior, intra pubescentem; lobi obtusi, intra papillatos, marginem glabro. Ovarium et capsula pubescens.

2n = 80