Small tree up to 4 m. tall; young shoots shortly stellately tomentellous. Leaf-lamina 4–9 × 2–4 cm., oblong to obovate-oblong, acuminate or acute at the apex, with margin irregularly crenate-dentate, slightly cordate or rounded at the base, strongly 3-nerved and sometimes asymmetrical at the base, stellate-pubescent on both surfaces and with tufts of hairs in the axils of the nerves; petiole tomentellous, widening just below the leaf-blade; stipules c. 2 mm. long, very caducous, tomentellous, subulate. Inflorescence of leaf-opposed 1–3-flowered cymes towards the ends of the branches; peduncles up to 1 cm. long, tomentellous; pedicels similar, up to 1·7 cm. long, thickening considerably in fruit up to a diameter of c. 4 mm.; bracts c. 2 mm. long, subulate, tomentellous. Sepals up to 2·2 × 0·4 cm., narrowly oblong, rather blunt at the apex, tomentellous outside, glabrous and yellow inside, with margin slightly thickened. Petals golden-yellow, slightly shorter than the sepals, narrowly oblong, glabrous, blunt or 2-dentate at the apex. Stamens very numerous, about half the length of the sepals; anthers linear with two narrow parallel thecae, dehiscing by terminal pores, with the connective prolonged at the apex by a very short crest and with a pair of very short blunt horns prolonging the bases of the thecae. Ovary subsessile, villous, subcylindric, sulcate, with many ovules in each loculus; style glabrous, rather flattened, blunt at the apex; stigmatic surface not wider than the style, c. 5 mm. long. Fruit 4–7·5 × 2–3 cm., hard and woody, oblong-cylindric, blunt or very abruptly apiculate at the apex, abruptly truncate at the base, with 8–10 paired deeply incised ridges running longitudinally down the outside, smoothly stellate-tomentellous. Seeds numerous, c. 4 × 3 mm., discoid, brown, with a rather roughened testa.
