A tree twenty to fifty feet high, with slender, spreading or drooping branches. Leaves: flat, mucronate, acuminate, cuspidate, the margins revolute, abruptly narrowed at the base into a short petiole. Fruit: seeds broadly ovate, somewhat flattened.

A beautiful tree with thin bark, and dark red-purple scales, whose long branches are usually horizontal. The leaves are bright yellow-green above, covered with a white bloom beneath, and are persistent for four or five years. The fruit is a lovely red, fleshy cup, containing a black, bony-coated seed.