A large or small evergreen (Gossweiler) tree, sometimes shrubby; young branchlets with a sparse whitish pubescence, ultimately glabrous. Leaves shortly petioled, elliptic-oblong to elliptic-ovate, apex acuminate, mucronulate, base obtuse, generally equal, margin entire or more or less irregularly toothed above, rarely to near the base, 2 1/2–5 (sometimes 8) in. long, 1 1/4–3 in. wide, coriaceous, glabrous, upper face minutely punctulate with cystoliths, 3-nerved to the apex, nerves generally depressed above, prominent beneath, connecting cross-veins prominulous; petiole 2 1/2–5 lin. long, glabrescent. Stipules ovate-triangular, acuminate, produced below the point of attachment, 2–2 1/2 lin. long, pubescent. Inflorescences axillary or the lower at scale-bearing nodes; the lower paniculate with male flowers clustered on the branchlets and a few longer-stalked fertile flowers above, the upper with fewer or no males and 3–5 fertile (ćF;) flowers. Sepals concave, broadly elliptic-oblong, 1–1 1/2 lin. long, puberulous on the back. Ovary surrounded at the base by a dense ring of whitish hairs, otherwise glabrate. Stigmas fleshy, densely papillose, broadly dilated and 2-lobed. Drupe green, roundish-ovoid, glabrous, dark brown when dry, about 4 lin. long, on a shortish peticel, 3–4 1/2 lin. long.
