Evergreen tree 7–20 m tall; stems glabrous; bud-scales very early caducous, ovate, ± 3 mm long, 3 mm wide. Leaf-blade elliptic, rarely slightly ovate or oblanceolate, 8–25 cm long, 2.5–10 cm wide, acumen up to 1.5 cm long, base cuneate to subcordate, glabrous, 5–6 pairs of veins; petiole terete, very variable in length, 0.5–13 cm long, 0.1–0.4 mm thick, glabrous, drying black at base and apex; stipules caducous, lanceolate, acuminate, ± 7 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, margin pubescent. Inflorescence cauliflorous, fascicles of single flowers from short woody spur shoots ± 0.7–1.5 cm long, 0.7–1 cm wide each bearing 15–30 flowers, isolated or clustered in burrs 4–5 cm across, on both branches and trunk, bracts basal, 3–4, ± 1.1 mm long, 0.8 mm wide, rounded; pedicel 1.3–4 cm long, articulated 0.5–1 cm from the base, glabrous, bright red. Flowers bright red or red-purple, rose-purple or (Luke 1835) yellow to flesh-coloured inside, 12–16 mm across, perianth divided to within 1.5–3.5 mm of the base into 4–6 patent lobes, lobes ovate-triangular 3.5–9 mm long, 3.5–5 mm wide, often revolute, glabrous outside, minutely papillate inside. Male flowers with white androphore, 1.5–2.5 mm long, 0.3–0.5 mm wide, glabrous, anthers 5–7, uniseriate, forming a ring 0.5–1 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm thick, glabrous. Female flowers as the male, but androphore absent, non-functional anthers forming a ring at the base of the ovary; ovary 3–4 lobed, very densely grey, stellately tomentose, ovoid, 1.2–2 mm long, 1.2–1.5 mm wide; stigmas ± sessile, reflexed, ± 1 mm wide. Fruits with carpels reddish, ovoid-round, ± 2–3 cm long, 1.5–2 cm high, 1–1.5 cm thick, apex shortly rostrate, glabrescent. Fig. 3, p. 29.
