Thorny, straggling or climbing shrub, young branches strigose or covered with rusty pubescence; stipular prickles very short, usually solitary, straight or hooked, brown and shining; leaves ovate-lanceolate, divergent, softly pubescent above, densely long, silky, pubescent beneath, base oblique, margins crenate or serrate, apex-acute; flowers in pale green, axillary, peduncled cymes; flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, glabrous within; calyx hairy outside, lobes ovate, acute; petals obtriangular, cucullate, shorter than calyx lobes, slightly exceeding stamens; stamens 5; ovary 2-celled; styles 2, united to above the middle; drupe small (1cm across) 1 or 2 celled, globose or obovoid, black and shining, stone woody or bony.