large shrub or small tree, 16–25 ft. high; twigs slender, angled, covered with silvery scales when young; leaves fragrant, alternate, distinctly to long-petioled, coriaceous, penninerved, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, emarginate, base minutely narrow-cordate, margin entire, 1 1/4–3 1/2 in. long, 1/2–1 1/4 in. wide, pale green, dull and uniformly persistently stellate-puberulous above, densely clothed with silvery scales with a few rusty scales intermixed beneath; lateral nerves 12–14 a side, neither impressed above nor raised beneath; petiole 1/2–1 1/2 in. long, densely silvery and rusty lepidote, with 2 sessile glands underneath at point of attachment with blade; stipules subulate, usually short, occasionally very long, scaly; racemes androgynous, 1–4 in. long, at ends of shoots; rhachis densely silvery and rusty scaly; bracts subulate-lanceolate, scaly; male pedicels 1–2 lin. long, densely scaly; sepals ovate, obtuse, 1 1/4 lin. long, coriaceous, densely scaly outside, closely puberulous within; petals ovate, rather shorter than sepals, scaly externally, margins villous, glabrous within; disc-glands thick, glabrous; stamens 15–20, filaments thinly pubescent below; receptacle pilose; female sepals as in male; petals oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, scaly outside, hairy within; disc minute; ovary densely clothed with fringed scales; styles spreading, 6–8-partite, glabrous; capsule very slightly 3-lobed, 1/3 in. long, densely scaly; seeds smooth. null
