The trunk is straight and branched, and the bark is gray with longitudinal fissures.

Leaves are opposite and subopposite, elliptical to aovate-elliptical, and they have entire margins; they are glossy green above and glaucous below.

[2] The edible fruit is a green, globose drupe with a single seed, 1.5–2 cm in diameter, with a point at the apex.

It grows at altitudes up to 1800 m above sea level, and it has an acceptable frost tolerance within this mostly tropical genus.

A specific example of occurrence is in the La Campana National Park of central Chile and amid the adjoining Cerro La Campana; in that location it is associated with the endangered Chilean wine palm, a tree with a much wider prehistoric distribution than at present.