Myrsine lessertiana grows as shrubs or trees, reaching heights of 2 to 8 meters. The branches, colored purplish to reddish brown and often moderately stout, maintain a glabrous texture. The leaves, simple and alternate, are distributed along the upper branches, with oblanceolate to elliptic-oblanceolate blades and occasionally ovate, oblong-oblanceolate, or oblong-elliptic shapes, measuring 4 to 15.5 cm in length and 1 to 7 cm in width. The apex of the leaves ranges from obtuse to rounded or occasionally acute, with a base that is cuneate to attenuate. The leaves are glabrous, dark green to occasionally yellowish green, with younger ones reddish to dark reddish purple, and are chartaceous to subcoriaceous in texture. The flowers emerge in bracteate fascicles of 3 to 15 or more, often arising on woody knobs, with pedicels that are very sparsely puberulent to glabrous. They are bisexual (perfect) or possibly unisexual, featuring a calyx with 4 to 6 deeply lobed sepals and a corolla of pink to purplish green petals. The ovary is superior, leading to purplish black drupes (fruit) that are globose or subglobose to broadly ovoid, measuring approximately 5 to 10 mm in diameter. The seeds are 1 per fruit, small, dark-colored, subglobose, and excavated at the base. It predominantly inhabits slopes, ridges, and open forest sites within mesic to wet forests and margins of bogs, but it can also be found in dry forests, subalpine woodlands, and pioneer shrublands between 215-2,200 meters.