Shrubs or trees, to 25 m. Stems not armed, glabrate. Leaves deciduous; petiole 6-14 mm, glabrous or glabrate; blade (lustrous dark green adaxially), elliptic, 24-111 × 12-40 mm, base attenuate, margins plane, apex acute to acuminate, abaxial surface glabrous or glabrate with hairs scattered along midrib (hairs reddish brown), venation visible, adaxial surface glabrous, midrib slightly raised, marginal vein present. Inflorescences 5-14-flowered. Pedicels 1-5 mm, sericeous (hairs reddish brown). Flowers: calyx 1.5-2.5 mm diam.; sepals 5, 1.5-1.6 × 1.3-1.8 mm, sericeous (hairs white to tawny); petals 5, white to cream, median segment ovate to suborbiculate, 1.6-1.8 mm, lateral segments lanceolate, 1.3-1.6 mm; stamens 5, 2.8-3.5 mm; staminodes lanceolate, 1.8-2.2 mm, erose; anthers lanceolate-sagittate, 0.8-1.3 mm; pistil 5-carpellate; ovary 5-locular, 1-1.2 mm, glabrous; style 0.9-1.5 mm. Berries purplish black, broadly ellipsoid to subglobose, 6-10 mm, glabrous. Seeds 4-6 mm.

Flowering Feb-May. Pine woodlands and savannas, hammocks; 0-100[-1500] m; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Belize, Guatemala).

Sideroxylonsalicifolium is recognizable readily by twigs lacking short shoots and thorns, glabrous or glabrate abaxial leaf surfaces, glabrous ovaries, and the presence of endosperm. Prior to T. D. Pennington´s (1990) treatment, most authors (e.g., A. Cronquist 1945c) placed S. salicifolium in Dipholis, based on the aforementioned characteristics. Molecular phylogenetic analyses by U. Swenson and A. A. Anderberg (2005) provided robust support for the nesting of S. salicifolium + S. foetidissimum among other sampled species of Sideroxylon. Cronquist noted its similarities in vegetative characters to the neotropical S. persimile (Hemsley) Pennington; the two are differentiated using flower and fruit characters (Pennington).