Plants to 2 m. Leaves: petiole 0.5-3(-4) cm; blade broadly lanceolate to elliptic, to 18 × 7 cm, base obtuse to attenuate, apex acute to acuminate. Racemes dense, proximalmost pedicels sometimes bearing 2-few flowers, to 20 cm; peduncle to 5(-8) cm; pedicel 2-4 mm. Flowers: sepals 5, white to red, oblong to ovate, subequal, 2-3 × 1.2-2 mm; stamens 7-12, in 1 whorl (rarely, partial 2d whorl present); carpels 7-10, fully connate or sometimes connate only in proximal ¹/2; ovary 7-10-loculed. Berries green-brown becoming dark brown, 5-8 mm diam. Seeds black, thickly lenticular, 2.5-3.3 mm, shiny. 2n = 36.

Flowering; fruiting summer-fall. Chrome ore piles; 10 m; introduced; Md.; South America.