Shrubs, height unknown; branches stout, grayish brown or grayish yellow, pubescent. Petiole stout, 1.5–2 cm, sparsely pubescent; leaf blade abaxially whitish green, often oblong or lanceolate, rarely obovate-oblong, 10–16 × 2–3.7 cm, papery, adaxially sparsely pubescent, all veins raised except midvein adaxially, base cuneate or broadly cuneate, margin serrulate or denticulate with teeth ending in gland at end of vein, apex acuminate. Staminate inflorescences dark purple, ca. 2 cm (in Jan. before blooming). Carpellate inflorescences not seen, infructescences ca. 3.5 cm. Staminate flowers: calyx lobes 4, undulate; petals ovate, ca. 2 × 1.5–1.8 mm, apex caudate for ca. 1 mm; stamens ca. 1 mm. Carpellate flowers not seen. Fruit light green (from notes on labels), dark brown when dry, oblong, ca. 1.2 cm, ca. 0.5 cm in diam., base slightly pubescent; fruiting pedicel grayish yellow, stout, pubescent, conspicuously expanded at juncture with fruit. Fl. Jan–Mar, fr. Jan.

Aucuba robusta is similar to A. chlorascens, but differs in having branches and fruiting pedicels grayish brown or grayish yellow, stouter, and conspicuously expanded at the junction with the fruit; the flowers are dark purple and the stigma is slightly 4-lobed.

Dense forests in valleys; 800–900 m. Guangxi.