It is a species of evergreen shrubs or small trees occurring in East Africa, Madagascar, the Mascarene Islands and the Seychelles.

[2] Aphloia theiformis is an evergreen shrub or small tree reaching up to 10 m (33 ft) high.

Young branches are hairless, brown in colour, have stripes along their length and wings extending from the nodes, narrowing downwards and carries alternately set leaves in two rows.

The individual flowers have an undifferentiated perianth that consists of four or five, rarely six, slightly leathery, white, later yellowish, oval to round, concave tepals of 2½-3½ mm (0.10–0.14 in) in diameter, interlocked with each other at their foot.

The ovary consists of one carpel, is oval in shape and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long, sits sometimes on a short stalk (a state called stipitate), and is topped by a shield-shaped stigma with a groove, set on a very short style.