The forest elder is an attractive, moisture-loving, floriferous tree and it makes a conspicuous feature in the forest patches it commonly inhabits.

A lovely dense and rounded crown is often evident, contributing greatly to the visual appeal of the species. It is becoming an increasingly popular garden subject, noted for its conspicuous flowers and shapely crown and, with a growing number of plantsmen now offering the species for sale, its economic value is on the increase too.

The natural distribution of the species extends from the Cape midlands and Eastern Cape through Kwazulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo province to Mozambique and up into eastern and central tropical Africa. It is fairly widespread in forests and on forest margins in the coastal and mountain forest belt, occurring frequently along watercourses (Von Breitenbach 1965). It is relatively sensitive to frost and drought which effectively excludes it from the very cold or arid regions. Cultivation of this species however is now commonplace outside of its natural range.

The leaves are simple, 40-160 x 10-70 mm, oblong to elliptic in shape, and taper to a pointed apex.

They may be opposite but more often are 3-whorled and this, together with the distinctive red to purple midrib visible on immature leaves, represents a valuable identification feature of the tree. The leaf margins are entire or faintly toothed and are often clearly undulating. The slender leaf stalks vary from 15 to 45 mm in length.

The sweetly scented, cream-white flowers are small in size, around 3 mm long, and are borne in large, branched inflorescences (cymose panicles) produced terminally and in the axils of leaves nearer the ends of the branches. Bracts are around 1 mm in length and both the calyx and corolla are 4-lobed, the stamens protruding. Flowering has been recorded from autumn to spring, mostly between the months of May and September.

The flowers of the forest elder are seen to be self-pollinated as well as by bees in search of nectar and pollen (Von Breitenbach 1965). Numerous other insects also effect pollination and their presence in turn attracts many insectivorous birds.