An evergreen tree with a straight trunk, conical crown and slender drooping branches, about 10-25 m tall. Bark dark grayish brown, branches sparsely puberulous when young, glabrous when mature. Leaves are lance-shaped with wavy margins and, depending on their age, either bronze, lime green or dark green. They remain on the tree in all seasons and in a dense arrangement that almost completely cloaks the trunk in lush greenery, from near the tree bottom to the top.

For a brief period in spring, masses of pale yellow-green star-shaped flowers bloom amid the leaves. These are followed by green, coffee-berry-like fruit with a single seed, ripening to dark purple or near black from summer to autumn.