Shrub or small tree, rarely to 10 m tall and ca 15 cm dbh; stems hirsute; bark black. Leaves alternate; stipules linear, 3-5 mm long, hirsute, sometimes paired on one side of petiole; petioles ca 5 mm long, densely hirsute; blades inequilateral, +/- elliptical, acute to gradually acuminate, strongly inequilateral at base, obtuse on one side, +/- cordate on the other, 4-10 (11) cm long, 2-3.5 cm wide, with sparse, sessile, stellate pubescence on upper surface and dense, soft, whitish, stellate pubescence on lower surface, serrate; palmate veins at base 3-5. Inflorescences supra-axillary, usually 1-flowered; pedicels 1-2 cm long; flowers 5-parted, with a disagreeable odor, 1.5-2 cm diam; sepals lanceolate, very long-acuminate, to 7 mm long, pubescent on both surfaces, softly so inside; petals fugacious, white to creamy white, rounded at apex, 7-9 mm long, the outer margin undulate; stamens numerous, plainly visible, 4-5 mm long, erect to spreading, borne on outer margin of the disk; disk narrow, the rim velutinous; ovary ovoid, glabrous; style short, thick; stigma radiate, 5-lobed. Berries ovate, baccate, bright red, sweet, rugose when dried, subtended by the receptacle trichomes and the filaments; seeds many, ovoid, ca 0.5 mm long. C. L. Wilson 152.