Erect shrub or tree, up to 6-10 m tall; usually spinose; leaves petiolate, alternate, usually clustered towards ends of older branches, variable in shape, ovate or elliptic-oblong, 3-6 x 3cm, apex acuminate, margins crenate or toothed, glabrous above, more or less pubescent beneath; flowers small, dioceous, rarely bisexual, yellowish green; sepals 4-5, ovate, obtuse, sub-glabrous outside, hairy inside, imbricate; male flowers on short, branched, clustered racemes, sometimes even on the thorns; stamens numerous, anthers versatile; female flowers on short branches, solitary or in pairs, pedicels villous; ovary 2-8, carpellary, glabrous, situated on a glandular disk; styles-2 or more; stigma notched or 2-lobed; ovules usually in pairs on each placenta; berries ellipsoid to sub-globose, indehiscent, dark purple or red when ripe; seeds pale yellow to brown, obovoid.