Maytenus oleoides is a shrub or small stocky tree about 4-6 m high. The bark is pale greyish brown to ashen grey, smooth when young, becoming rough and corky with vertical grooves as it matures. The light grey bark contrasts with the deep green crown.

The leaves are hard and leathery, bright green with a bluish bloom. They are simple, alternate and egg-shaped to oval with a narrowed base, the midrib is ridged above, the margins are untoothed and rolled back and the apex is rounded, sometimes notched. When snapped and the two sections pulled apart, they do not have drawn out silken threads characteristic of some species e.g. M. acuminata. It has a characteristic pale green sap-but this is not a very obvious feature in that it does not ooze sap freely. Young growth is coppery red and the petioles and new stems are often a decorative pinkish red.

The flowers are small, creamy white, in tight clusters in the axils of the leaves, mainly during spring (Aug.-Nov.), although the Kirstenbosch garden specimens were in full flower in early winter (May-June). The fruit is a 2-lobed capsule about 10 mm in diameter, fleshy at first, greenish yellow, becoming yellow-orange and dry when mature, splitting in summer (Dec.) to release seeds that are covered by a yellow aril.

Maytenus oleoides and Pterocelastrus tricuspidatus (cherrywood/ kershout ) are often confused for each other. Both have thick leathery leaves of similar colour, size and shape, both with rolled back, entire margins, and whitish cream flowers in axillary clusters. But they can be distinguished quite easily when you know what to look for:

1.  Pterocelastrus has distinctly 4-angled stems where those of Maytenus oleoides are rounded.
2.  Pterocelastrus has a wedge-shaped midrib that peters out well before the apex.
3.  Pterocelastrus has 3-lobed fruits and each lobe has 1 or 2 wing-like horns, those of Maytenus oleoides are 2-lobed without horns.