Shrub, climbing to suberect with slender, finely pubescent branches. Leaves oblong or ovate-elliptic, 5-20 cm long, 3-10 cm broad, entire, acute, subcordate at the base; petiole 2-8 cm long. Umbellate cymes terminal, many flowered. Flowers red or white with pinkish or reddish centre, fragrant; bracts subulate. Calyx cupular, deeply cleft into 5 lobes; lobes ovate, c. 1 cm long, whitish, acute. Corolla-tube puberulous, 5-lobed; lobes shorter than tube, acute. Drupe bluish-black, breaking into 4 pyrenes at maturity, enclosed by red calyx.