Dioecious tree, usually less than 6 m tall (to 15 m), glabrous but the leaves occasionally puberulent; branchlets grayish, sometimes lenticellate; sap milky. Leaves alternate; petioles 5-10 mm long; stipules lateral, ovate, paired, 2-5 mm long, caducous; blades oblong to oblong-obovate, caudate-acuminate at apex, narrowing to acute or rounded base, 7-16 (18) cm long, 2.5-5.5 (7.2) cm wide, entire or rarely bluntly serrate, the major lateral veins conspicuous below, loop-connected. Racemes puberulent, axillary; staminate racemes soon falling, 2-8 cm long, cream-colored, puberulent, the flowers numerous, bowl-shaped, ca 2 mm long, equaling length of pedicel, not dense, interspersed with minute peltate bracts; tepals 4, fleshy, broadly oval, concave; stamens 4, opposite and as long as tepals; filaments arched. Pistillate racemes usually 1-8 cm long in flower (to 6 cm in fruit), the flowers to 3 mm long, numerous, not dense, interspersed with many small bracts; pedicels pink and elongating to 6-10 mm in fruit; perianth depressed-globose, thick, ca 1.5 mm long and to 2.3 mm wide, the upper margin held tightly around the style; style bifid, with short, stout, flattened lobes spreading and recurving above throat of perianth; ovary ovoid, weakly pubescent. Drupes subglobose, ca 8 mm diam, green with an orange or red tip, becoming bright red and finally purple at maturity; seed 1. Croat 4106, 5765. Frequent in the forest. Flowers sometimes starting in April, but mostly June to November, with the fruits maturing from September to December (sometimes February).