Trees evergreen, 5–7 m tall. Branchlets brown, terete, glabrous, blackish gray when old, with scattered suborbicular or oblong lenticels. Petiole (1–)2–4 cm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 6–12 × 3–5 cm, leathery, veins 12–17 pairs, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, rarely rounded, margin entire, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Compound corymbs terminal, much branched, 7–12 × 8–15 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous, rarely puberulous. Pedicel 3–5 mm. Flowers 4–5(–8) mm in diam. Hypanthium cupular, 1–1.5 mm, abaxially glabrous. Sepals broadly triangular, 1–1.5 mm, apex obtuse. Petals white or yellowish, orbicular, 1–2 mm in diam., glabrous, base shortly clawed. Stamens 20, nearly as long as or slightly longer than petals. Ovary pilose apically; styles 2, shorter than or nearly as long as stamens. Fruit purplish red, subglobose, 5–6 mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 34.

Evergreen forests; 1200--2700 m. W Guangxi, Guizhou, SE Xizang, W Yunnan [Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam].