Moderate-sized to large tree, 9–24 m. tall, bark smooth and grey. Branchlets purple-brown, never spiny, at first pubescent later glabrous. Leaves very variable, narrowly elliptic to broadly ovate, usually ovate, cuneate, truncate or subcordate at the base, asymmetric, often markedly so, acuminate at the apex, entire when adult but seedling leaves and leaves from coppice shoots are often palmately lobed and much larger than adult leaves. Lamina 4–19 cm. long and 2.5–10 cm. wide (up to 25 × 27 cm. in juvenile leaves), at first pubescent, later glabrescent; petiole 0.5–2.5 cm. long, velvety pubescent or glabrous; main lateral nerves 4–6, the basal ones confocal and sharply ascending so that the lamina is 5–7-nerved from the base, tertiary venation close, approximately parallel and at right angles to the costa. Flowers golden pubescent, white, cream or yellow, sweetly scented, 8–16 mm. long and 1.5–3.5 mm. wide, 5–8-merous, 3–23 in pedunculate 1–4-branched pubescent or glabrescent inflorescences, peduncles 0.4–1.8 cm. long, secondary branches 0.1–2.6 cm. long and pedicels 3–5.5 mm. long. Buds cylindrical, usually swollen at the base. Calyx-tube cylindrical or funnel-shaped, 1.5 mm. long, limb spreading, 1 mm. tall, denticulate. Petals ligulate, 8–13.5 mm. long and 1–1.7 mm. wide, pubescent outside, glabrescent inside save for a densely hirsute area near the base. Stamens the same number as the petals, anthers narrow, 5–9 mm. long. Style pilose, cylindrical, clavate apically, stigma lobed, together 7–10 mm. long. Fruit laterally compressed, globose or ellipsoidal, rather costate in the dry state, basally rounded, apically rather tapering, minutely pubescent, 1–2-celled, 8–10 mm. long, 6.5–9 mm. wide (maximum) and 4–5.5 mm. wide (minimum). Fig. 1.
