Shrub or small tree, deciduous and slightly spiny, up to 8(10) m in height, very ramose. In many specimens, with a well defined trunk, arborescent, with brown-blackish, rugose or fissured bark. Branches opposite, with blackish-brown, smooth bark. Branchlets reddish-brown, often ending in spines. Leaves (2-7 \u00d7 1-4 cm) opposite or subopposite in young branchlets; in the rest of the plant, they usually grow in small groups, sometimes alternate, ovate, obovate or ovate-lanceolate, sometimes suborbicular, finishing in an acute or broadly rounded tip, \u00b1 attenuated at the base, with the margin irregularly crenate-dentate, with 2-3 pairs of almost parallel veins, glabrous and intense green on the upper side, sometimes pubescent and slightly lighter on the underside. Petiole well developed, pubescent, with herbaceous stipules, promptly caducous. Inflorescences in axillary cymes, numerous and dense, often obscuring the part of the branchlet on which they are borne. Flowers greenish-yellowish, hermaphrodite, unisexual or polygamous, pedicellate. Calyx tubular-campanulate, with 4 lanceolate sepals. Petals 4, very small, inconspicuous. Fruit a drupe, 6-8 mm in diameter, at first green, then reddish and finally black. Seeds 2-4, with a groove on the inside.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-12681","species","type-species","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n