Size: shrub, 10-15' average height and spread at maturity
Buds: winter buds naked, flower buds have a few scales and appear in branched clusters at twig tips, vegetative buds large brown tomentose
Leaves: evergreen, although leaves often hang on and turn brownish, opposite, 3-7" long, 1.5" wide, simple, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, margins entire or denticulate, veins more deeply impressed than in V. rhytidophylloides, shiny dark green, densely pubescent underside
Twigs: gray to brown, pubescent when young
Flowers: monoecious, yellow-white flowers in flat-topped 4-8" cymes
Fruit: oval drupe up to .33", red maturing to black
Bark: gray to brown, older stems glabrous
