Shrub, to 2 (4) m tall; stems, petioles, and axes of inflorescences with many violet-purple to red-violet trichomes mostly 5-10 mm long. Petioles 1-3.5 cm long; blades +/- ovate-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, acuminate, obtuse to rounded or slightly subcordate at base, 5-15 cm long, 2-6.5 cm wide, more or less pilose on both sides especially on veins, entire to serrulate and ciliate; veins from base 3-5. Panicles very congested in flower, branched or unbranched, to 4 cm long, the trichomes at first whitish becoming colored in fruit; flowers ca 6 mm wide, secund, in a staggered row; hypanthium usually glabrous; calyx spreading, its lobes deeply lacerate and markedly ciliate, the exterior teeth equaling calyx lobes; petals 5, white to pinkish, 3-4 mm long, often emarginate at apex; stamens and style folded in bud; stamens red-violet, +/- directed to one side; anthers 1.7 mm long, their terminal pores held in close proximity to style; style directed like the stamens. Berries subglobose, 6-7 mm diam, black, shiny; seeds numerous, minute, brown. Croat 6126.