Evergreen shrub or small tree up to 6 m tall; young branches glabrous, conspicuously angled and ribbed. Leaves decussately opposite, simple and entire; stipules absent; petiole 4–12 mm long; blade elliptical, 6–12 cm × 1.5–5 cm, base cuneate or rounded, apex acute to obtuse, mucronate, leathery, glossy, glabrous, pinnately veined, lateral veins inconspicuous, with looping connections. Inflorescence a dense axillary cyme, many-flowered. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, fragrant; sepals free, ovate to lanceolate, 2.5–3 mm long, apex acuminate to acute, shortly hairy or glabrous outside, ciliate; corolla tube cylindrical, 14–20 mm long, glabrous or shortly hairy outside, inside sparsely hairy in the upper half and wrinkled below, white tinged pink, lobes broadly ovate, 3–7 mm long, apex rounded, glabrous to shortly hairy on both sides, ciliate or not, white; stamens inserted near the top of the corolla tube, included; ovary superior, ellipsoid, faintly ribbed, 2-celled, style slender, stigma minutely bifid. Fruit an ellipsoid to globose berry 2–2.5 cm long, purple when ripe, 1–2-seeded. Seeds ellipsoid, plano-convex, c. 1.5 cm long, smooth, glabrous.

Emetic (leaves).

PROTAbase: Acokanthera oblongifolia

The leaves are used medicinally to treat snakebites. To treat snakebites, a small amount of the leaves is eaten, a leaf decoction is drunk and the leaf pulp is rubbed into the wound, root powder is sniffed and roots or leaves are put on the swollen part as a dressing. Root scrapings are rubbed into the skin against itch. A wood or leaf decoction is drunk or administered as an enema as a cure for internal worms.