A shrub, 5 ft. high, with greyish or green branches; leaf-buds minutely fulvo-tomentose. Leaves elliptic-oblong, acuminate (acumen up to 1 in. long), obtuse at the base, 8–12 in. long, 3–5 in. broad, thinly coriaceous, glabrous, drying brown, slightly shining; midrib rather broad, flat or slightly convex above, prominent and rounded underneath; lateral nerves 7–9 on each side, curved, intermediate 1–2 in. apart, the lower more oblique than the upper spreading, sunk above, raised below, loose reticulation raised on both sides; petiole stout, 3 lin. long, narrowly channelled above. Panicles 3–4 in. long, up to 2 1/2 in. wide, slender, finely fulvo-pubescent all over; peduncle 1/2–1 1/2 in. long; lowest branches up to more than 1 in. long, distant, undivided in the lower third or half, then copiously divided and many-flowered; ultimate branchlets and pedicels filiform, short, the latter 1/2 lin. long; bracts boat-shaped, subacute, 2 lin. long. Perianth (not quite open) globose-turbinate, up to 3/4 lin. long, very finely puberulous without; receptacle not quite half the length of the perianth; segments rotundate. Introrse stamens with very short filaments, almost as broad as the anthers, bearded laterally below the anthers; extrorse stamens with very sparingly and minutely hairy filaments, with a large gland on each side of the base; staminodes subcordate-lanceolate. Ovary glabrous, gradually passing into a style of equal length.
