[2] It is a deciduous shrub or small tree growing to 2–9 metres (7–30 ft) tall with a short crooked trunk and stout spreading branches; in the northern parts of its range, it is a shrub, becoming a small tree in the southern parts of its range.

[3][4][5][6] The flowers are creamy white, 9 mm diameter; the calyx is urn-shaped, five-toothed, persistent; the corolla is five-lobed, with rounded lobes, imbricate in bud; the five stamens alternate with the corolla lobes, the filaments slender, the anthers pale yellow, oblong, two-celled, the cells opening longitudinally; the ovary is inferior, one-celled, with a thick, pale green style and a flat stigma and a single ovule.

The fruit is a drupe 1 cm long, dark blue-black with glaucous bloom, hangs until winter, becomes edible after being frosted, then eaten by birds; the stone is flat and even, broadly oval.

Wherever it lives, black haw prefers sunny woodland with well-drained soil and adequate water.

[7] It has both value in the pleasure garden, providing good fall color and early winter provender for birds, and medicinal properties.

Due to its antispasmodic properties, the plant may also be of use in treating cramps of the digestive tract or the bile ducts.

The chemicals in black haw do relax the uterus and therefore probably prevent miscarriage; however, the salicin may be teratogenic.

Black haw is not on the "generally recognized as safe list" of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).