Small deciduous tree. Bark very rough and corky, grey to blackish, sometimes but not always with milky sap. Leaves alternate, ovate to lanceolate-elliptic, 2-8 cm long, thinly leathery, bronze-red when young and before falling, bright green above, bluish below, lateral veins yellow; margin entire. Flowers in short dense, almost ball-shaped spikes, yellowish, unisexual in the same inflorescence. Fruit 3-lobed, c. 10 mm in diameter, red to brown.