Trees evergreen, 5–7 m tall. Branchlets brown, terete, glabrous, blackish gray when old, with scattered suborbicular or oblong lenticels. Petiole (1–)2–4 cm, glabrous; leaf blade oblong, lanceolate, or oblanceolate, 6–12 × 3–5 cm, leathery, veins 12–17 pairs, both surfaces glabrous, base cuneate, rarely rounded, margin entire, apex acute or shortly acuminate. Compound corymbs terminal, much branched, 7–12 × 8–15 cm, many flowered; rachis and pedicels glabrous, rarely puberulous. Pedicel 3–5 mm. Flowers 4–5(–8) mm in diam. Hypanthium cupular, 1–1.5 mm, abaxially glabrous. Sepals broadly triangular, 1–1.5 mm, apex obtuse. Petals white or yellowish, orbicular, 1–2 mm in diam., glabrous, base shortly clawed. Stamens 20, nearly as long as or slightly longer than petals. Ovary pilose apically; styles 2, shorter than or nearly as long as stamens. Fruit purplish red, subglobose, 5–6 mm in diam., glabrous. Fl. May–Jun, fr. Sep–Oct. 2n = 34.
Evergreen shrub or small tree quite glabrous. Leaves coriaceous, oblanceolate 8–12 by 3–4 cm, base cuneate, apex shortly acuminate, entire, glabrous; nerves 10–15 pairs with numerous and conspicuous intermediate veins. Petiole 10–30 mm long. Corymbs large, spreading, glabrous or pubescent. Pedicel very short (1–3 mm). Calyx lobes rounded. Petals white, ovate. Apex of the ovary densely pilose. Styles 2, free. Fruit globose, ± 5 mm in diameter, with calyx lobes inflexed at the top.
Central and eastern Himalaya: from Nepal (type) and Sikkim to Bhutan; Assam (Khasi Hills); Ceylon; S. India; S. China (Yunnan); Thailand; N. Vietnam; N. Laos; Malay Archipelage (Sumatra, Java, Timor).
