A shrub from 10 ft. to a tree of 30 ft.; branches terete, pale-ashy or reddish; young shoots yellowish-pubescent. Leaves obovate-oblong, suddenly narrowed or acuminate or occasionally rounded at the apex, wedge-shaped or nearly rounded at the base, membranous, subglabrescent and deep green above with depressed midrib, somewhat yellowish-pubescent or subglabrescent beneath, 2–7 1/4 by 1–3 1/2 in.; petiole hairy, 1/10– 1/2 in. long. Inflorescence axillary, in short 1–5-flowered cymes, yellowish-pubescent; peduncles 1/10– 1/3 in. long; bracts small, caducous, at the base of the very short pedicels; flowers diœcious, occasionally subhermaphrodite or polygamous, greenish-yellow, fragrant. Calyx tubular, subtruncate or with 4 short rounded lobes at the apex, 1/4– 2/5 in. long, hairy on both sides, somewhat accrescent. Corolla tubular, about twice the length of the calyx, 4-cleft, glabrous except a hairy line outside down the middle of each of the oblong obtuse lobes. Stamens 16, in pairs, glabrous, partly inserted at the base of the corolla and partly hypogynous, 0 in female flowers. Ovary glabrous ?, 8-celled, rudimentary in male flowers, occasionally 5-celled in subhermaphrodite flowers. Fruit solitary, glabrous (but hairy around the base of the style), acorn-shaped, 1 by 2/3 in., half enclosed in the subtruncate shortly pubescent calyx. Albumen of the seeds uniform.
