The plant is large-stemmed (up to 10 cm in diameter); the bark is "corky gray" with white wood.

The "small, yellowish-white, sweet-scented" flowers vary between 6 and 10 millimeters across; the fruit produced is a drupe, "about 1 cm in diameter when dry".

Although poisonous, hard multum is a preparation made from Cocculus Indicus, etc., once used (by 19th century brewers)[6] to impart a more intoxicating quality ("giddiness") to beer than provided by the alcoholic content alone.

"[9] Although appearing in many homeopathic volumes and at least two brewers' guides, the use of such preparations was outlawed in England, during the mid-19th century, with fines of £500 for sale and £200 for use of the drug.

[2] The English common names are Indian berry,[6] fishberry, or Levant nut[10] (both referring to the dried fruit, and to the plant by synecdoche) and coca de Levante in Spanish; it is variously known as ligtang, aria (Mindanao), bayati (Tagalog), and variations thereof throughout its natural distribution (the Philippines, East India, Malaysia, and New Guinea).