Deciduous shrubs 2-4 m tall; branches slender, spreading, more or less spiny, the young branches densely scaly. Leaves elliptic to ovate-oblong, 4-8 cm long, 1-2 (-2.5) cm wide, upper surface sparsely white lepidote, lower surface densely white lepidote, apex acute to sometimes obtuse, petioles 0.5-1 cm long, densely white lepidote. Flowers 1-7 in axillary umbels, densely white lepidote, pedicels 3-6 (-8) mm long, elongating up to 12 mm long in fruit; hypanthium slender, gradually narrowed at base, 5-7 mm long; calyx lobes narrowly ovate, ca 3-5 mm long. Fruit red, fleshy, subglobose to broadly ellipsoid, 6-8 mm long.

Astringent (unripe fruit)

Plants for a Future
PIER

In the treatment of bloody dysentery, capable of reducing the incidence of cancer and also as a means of halting or reversing the growth of cancers (unripe fruit)