Shrub or small evergreen tree with short, crooked, grooved and is multi-stemmed. The twigs are angled and ribbed. Latex white. The bark is greyish brown and rather rough.
The leaves are broadly elliptic to almost circular, stiff and leathery, shiny dark green above and usually very rough (sandpapery) to the touch.
The sweetly scented flowers are white, tinged with pink to red, with rounded petals, in short, dense, axillary clusters from November to June.
The fleshy, red fruit ripen to purple-black and is round to oval in shape. The fruit is apparantly edible but bitter and best avoided because of this species poisonous properties.
Size: up to 6m