Coarsely branched tree up to 9–16 m tall with clean bole up to 7.5 m tall; bark corky, grey, very coarsely flaking in small pieces; flakes brick-red to yellow beneath, brittle; slash bright yellow cork layer above, crimson-red granular beneath. Leaves red when young, oblong-lanceolate, 11–45 cm long, 2–9 cm wide, rounded to retuse at the apex, cuneate and often asymmetrical at base, entire, glabrous; lateral veins very numerous together with midrib prominent on both surfaces; petiole 2–6 cm long; stipules linear-lanceolate, 3–5 mm long, 0.7 mm wide, deciduous. Panicles profuse, terminal, pyramidal, lax, 15–20 cm long; axes angular, striate, glabrous. Flowers white, scented; pedicels 1–1.5 cm long, jointed near apex, glabrous. Sepals unequal, glabrous; 2 outer ovate-acuminate, 7–8 mm long, 4–5 mm wide, acute at apex; inner 3 broadly ovate, 6 mm long, 5 mm wide, obtuse at apex. Petals obcordate, 1.7 cm long, 1.3 cm wide, glabrous. Stamens with filaments white, 4–6 mm long and anthers orange, 4–5 mm long. Ovary white, conical, 8 mm long, 3 mm wide; stigmas 1–2 mm long; ovules 8–16. Fruits conical, 3 cm long, 1 cm wide, glabrous with unequal wing-like enlarged sepals, one 8–10 cm long, 2–2.5 cm wide and the other 2.5–5 cm long, 0.6–1 cm wide. Seed 1, ovoid, 1.6 cm long, 8 mm wide. Fig. 8 (p. 54).
