Shrub or small tree up to 4 m high, said to reach a height of 8 m in tropical Africa; sap milky, bark rough and corky; young branches more or less pubescent or tomentose, later glabrescent, dotted with lenticels. Leaves opposite or subopposite on shoots bearing inflorescences, thin-textured, broadly elliptic to oblong, rarely ovate or roundish, rounded to obtuse at the base, apex rounded, usually abruptly and shortly acute to acuminate, 7-14 cm long and 4-7 cm broad, sparingly to densely pubescent on both surfaces, often glabrescent, rarely glabrous or with scattered hairs on the nerves; nerves 8-12 on each side, widely spreading; petioles 4-8 mm long, channelled above with a few glands at the base of the petiole on the inner surface. Stipules 0. Inflorescence usually sub-axillary or leaf-opposed, corymbose, dense, often tomentose, rarely glabrous; peduncle 1-1-5 cm; bracts linear 4-6 mm long. Flowers white, fragrant; pedicels 5-9 mm long. Calyx of 5 free sepals, eglandular within; sepals linear-subulate, 4-6 mm long, pubescent. Corolla salver-shaped; tube cylindric, slender, usually puberulous, slightly wider near the base and apex, 1-2-1-5 cm long, densely pubescent within; lobes oblong, slightly shorter than the tube, 1 ? 1-1 -4 cm long. Stamens 5, inserted near the base of the tube; anthers oblong-lanceolate, apiculate, 1-5 mm long; filaments minute, 0-5 mm long. Disc 0. Ovary of 2 free carpels, glabrous; style columnar, slightly compressed, broader towards the apex, 1-1-5 mm long; stigma slightly thickened, broader at the base, blunt at the apex. Fruit of 2 mericarps, pendulous, scarcely spreading; mericarps follicular, slender, more or less constricted between the seeds, thinly coriaceous, 20-28 cm long and 2-5-3-5 mm in diameter, surface smooth. Seeds numerous, linear to linear-oblong, striated, 9-11 mm long with a dense tuft of hairs 2-5-3-5 cm long at the apex, grooved; cotyledons broad, complicate; radicle short, straight, 2-3 mm long; endosperm very scanty.
