Trees or shrubs, up to 10 m high, greyish green. Bark smooth when young, peeling off in narrow strips when old. Leaves oblong-lanceolate to ovate, 3-10 cm long, often cuspidate, very coriaceous, dark green and shining above, with a dense film of minute scales beneath which turn reddish brown on older leaves, margins recurved, midrib prominent; petiole short. Flowers whitish, in trichotomous axillary 2-4 cm long cymes. Calyx truncate or with 4 short teeth. Corolla tube very short, lobes 4, 1-2 mm long, elliptic, obtuse or acute, with a ridge along the middle. Drupe c. 8 mm long, 5 mm in diameter, ovoid, black when ripe; pulp scanty, oily.