Growth Form: Small tree to 25 feet tall; trunk diameter up to 10 inches; crown irregular, with numerous slender branchlets.
Bark: Gray, smooth on young trees and soon bearing “warts,” becoming rough and scaly on old trees.
Twigs: Slender, green to reddish-brown, smooth at maturity; leaf scars alternate, crescent-shaped, with 3 bundle traces.
Buds: Slender, oval, pointed, grayish-brown, finely hairy, up to ⅛ inch long.
Leaves: Alternate, simple; blades ovate, pointed at the tip, rounded or somewhat heart-shaped at the base, up to 3 inches long, often at least half as broad, with a few coarse teeth along the edges, or sometimes lacking teeth, often leathery, smooth or hairy on one or both surfaces; leafstalks up to ½ inch long, smooth or hairy.
Flowers: One or a few in drooping clusters, appearing after the leaves are partly grown, finely hairy, greenish-yellow, without petals.
Fruit: Fleshy, spherical, reddish-purple, up to ½ inch in diameter, 1-seeded, ripening September and October.
Wood: Heavy, close-grained, yellowish.
Use: Fence posts.
Habitat: Edge of bluffs, woods.