Branches stout, pale brown, terete, smooth, not shining, glabrous; branchlets similar, very slender, slightly angular, black-punctate; buds glabrous; leaves opposite, petiolate, the petiole 1 cm long or less, deeply channelled above, winged to base, glabrous, black-punctate; blades ovate to lanceolate, small (the larger 6 cm long, 3 cm wide), acute or bluntly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, entire or minutely serrulate, almost concolorous, glabrous, conspicuously black-punctate beneath; principal veins 5 to 7, inconspicuous, scarcely if at all elevated beneath, arcuate and anastomosing; peduncle none; cyme thrice compound, up to 3 cm long and 6.5 cm wide, the primary rays 4 or 5, about 1.5 cm long, glabrous, black-punctate; bractlets of inflorescence minute, 1 mm long or less, glabrous, those subtending the lowers about one-fourth as long as the calyx tube; calyx tube cylindric, about 2 mm long, glabrous; calyx lobes rounded, minute (about 0.5 mm long), glabrous; corolla white, rotate-campanulate, about 3 mm long, glabrous; style glabrous; fruit much flattened, black, about 10 mm long, 8 mm wide, and 3 mm thick, fleshy, not sulcate on either face, the intrusion absent.[4]
The generic name originated in Latin, where it referred to V. lantana.[7] The specific epithet elatum is derived from Latin elatus, meaning "elevated".
Though the most geographically widespread species of Viburnum in Mexico,[4]V. elatum is considered rare, and is listed as conservation dependent by the IUCN.[1]