Size: shrub, 10-15' average height and spread at maturity
Buds: winter buds naked, flower buds have a few scales and can be found in tight solitary clusters at twig tips, vegetative buds are brown and tomentose
Leaves: evergreen, although leaves often hang on and turn brownish, opposite, 3-8" long, 1-2.5" wide, simple, ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, tip acute or obtuse, entire of slightly denticulate margins, veins course and not as deeply impressed as in V. rhytidophyllum, dark green top, very tomentose underside
Twigs: gray to brown, pubescent when young
Flowers: monoecious, yellow-white flowers in flat-topped 3-4" cymes, light fragrance
Fruit: 1-3" oval drupe, red maturing to black
Bark: gray to brown, older stems glabrous
