Perennial glabrous shrub with slender, straggling branches, straight, sharp spines; leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, 3-foliolate; leaflets thick, soft, coriaceous, crenulate, terminal larger, ovate with cuneate base, rounded or notched tip; laterals smaller, sessile, oblique, deep green; flowers axillary, solitary or in 3-flowered cymes, very shortly peduncled; flowers actinomorphic, bisexual, white, fragrant; calyx 3-lobed; petals 3, free, imbricate, oblong; stamens 6, free or connate, inserted around a fleshy disk, filaments free, unequal, dilated at the base; anthers linear; ovary 3-celled; ovoid, narrowed into a slender, deciduous style, stigma 3-lobed, solitary ovule in each cell; fruit mucilaginous berry, 1-2 cm in diameter, 1-3 celled, fleshy, gland dotted, ovoid, 1-3 seeded; seeds oblong.