Trees, deciduous. Bark grayish black to grayish brown. Petiole 0.7--1.5 cm; leaf blade elliptic to ovate-oblong, 5--13 X 2.5--6 cm, submembranous, abaxially drying green or glaucous and with dark veinlets, base obtuse, broadly cuneate, or subrounded, apex acuminate to acute, lateral veins 7--10 per side, reticulate veinlets clearly defined, flat, and dark. Male flowers 1--3 together; pedicel to 6 mm; calyx lobes 4(or 5); corolla reddish to pale yellow, urn-shaped, ca. 4 mm, lobes 4; stamens 16. Female flowers subsessile, pale green to reddish; calyx lobes 4; corolla urn-shaped, ca. 6 mm, lobes 4 or rarely 5; staminodes 8; ovary 8-locular, glabrous except for apex; styles 4. Fruiting calyx lobes 4, ovate, apex obtuse. Berries pale yellow, becoming bluish black with a glaucous bloom, subglobose to ellipsoid, 1--2 cm in diam. Seeds brown, compressed, ca. 10 X 6 mm in diam. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Oct-Nov.

500--2500 m. Anhui, Gansu, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [SW Asia, W Asia, S Europe, naturalized in countries around the Mediterranean]