Deciduous shrub or small tree. Leaves opposite, oval, untoothed, dull green beneath, 3 to 5 pairs of main veins. Flowers yellow, small 4 or 5 mm borne in small clusters before the leaves emerge. Fruit oval, 12 to 15 mm, shiny scarlet when ripe.

Sometimes planted and occasionally naturalises.

Flowers February and March.

Perennial.

Infrequent but widespread in Britain.

Rare as a naturalised plant in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 1 of the 617 tetrads.