Trees to 20 m tall. Trunk to 40 cm d.b.h. Branchlets gray to dark brown. Winter buds densely appressed yellow pubescent. Petiole 5--6 mm; leaf blade lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5--9 X 1.5--3.3 cm, thinly leathery, subglabrous, abaxially sparsely pubescent when young, drying blackish, base attenuate into petiole, margin very narrowly revolute, apex bluntly acuminate, lateral veins 12--18 per side, reticulate veinlets slender and raised on both surfaces in older leaves. Male flowers in small dense cymes, less than 5 mm; pedicel ca. 1 mm, pubescent; calyx bowl-shaped, ca. 1.5 mm, glabrous; calyx lobes 4, flat at anthesis, triangular, erect, margin ciliate; corolla with globose basal swelling (galled?) and narrowly cylindric limb, ca. 6 mm, basal swelling minutely puberulent, otherwise glabrous, lobes 4 and ca. 2 mm. Female flowers solitary; pedicel 2--3 mm; calyx lobes 4, subovate; corolla urn-shaped, tube ca. 3 mm, lobes subovate and ca. 3 mm. Fruiting pedicel ca. 3 mm. Fruiting calyx ca. 1.4 cm in diam.; lobes 4, strongly recurved or reflexed, elliptic-ovate, apex rounded. Berries globose, 1--1.2 cm in diam., 4-locular, glabrous, ± rugulose. Seeds slightly compressed ovoid, 8--9 X 3--4.5 X 2.5--4 mm. Fl. Jul-Dec, fr. Sep-Dec.

The wood of Diospyros nitida is dark gray, hard, and heavy and is suitable for construction and furniture.

The corollas of all male flowers seen by the authors are apparently galled, and as such the description is not likely the true state.

Valleys or in low moist broadleaved forests; 0-400 m. SW Hainan [Philippines, Vietnam].