[2][1] Ehretia microphylla is a shrub growing to 4 m height, with long, straggling, slender branches.

[2][3] The plant occurs widely in eastern and south-eastern Asia from India, Indochina, southern China, and Japan, through Malesia, including the Australian territory of Christmas Island, reaching New Guinea, mainland Australia at the Cape York Peninsula, and the Solomon Islands.

It has become an invasive weed in Hawaii where it is a popular ornamental plant and where the seeds are thought to be spread by frugivorous birds.

[3] On Cape York Peninsula, the plant is recorded from semi-evergreen vine thickets.

On Christmas Island, it favours dry sites on the terraces, and sometimes occurs in rainforest.