A Trema orientalis leaf-base is slightly asymmetrical, the three veins emerging from the base joined by lesser ones on the outside of the lateral pair. In picture, faint creamy net-veining can be discerned on the dark green blade part that bulges quilt-like among the sunken venation.

The leaf margins are toothed all the way around the blade, apart from possibly right at the base.

The petiole is grooved on top, and finely hairy like the pale, reddish stem.

The dense cluster of flowers growing from the leaf axil is green in bud, cream in open florets. The squat buds are vertically ribbed, the open petals boat-shaped (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993).