Nothocestrum breviflorum, a member of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, is a stout tree 10 to 12 m (33 to 39 ft) tall with a trunk up to 45 cm (18 in) in diameter, has deciduous, alternate, stalked, oblong or elliptic-oblong, thick and papery textured, toothless leaves which are 5 to 12 cm (2 to 4.7 in) long and 3 to 6 cm (1.2 to 2.4 in) wide. Numerous bisexual, radially symmetrical flowers are clustered at the ends of short spurs (branches with much shortened internodes) on individual stalks 4 to 10 mm (0.2 to 0.4 in) long. Each flower consists of a 6 to 11 mm (0.2 to 0.4 in) long, four-lobed tubular calyx split on one side and a greenish-yellow four-lobed corolla which barely projects beyond the calyx. The fruit, a somewhat spherical or oblong, orange-red berry about 6 to 8 mm (0.2 to 0.3 in) in diameter, is enclosed by the calyx.