Shrub or small tree (1.2–)2–7 m. tall; branchlets blackish-purple with pale lenticels, glabrous, later turning grey. Leaf-blades oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic-oblong, 6.5–16.5(–17.5) cm. long, 3–5.5(–7) cm. wide, rounded to acuminate at the apex, cuneate to rounded at the base, thin, glabrous; venation reticulate and prominent on both surfaces when mature; petioles 1–6 mm. long, glabrous; bud-scales as in 6, M. grandidieri. Flowers solitary, extra-axillary or in axils of fallen leaves, pendulous, appearing with the young leaves; pedicels 0.8–2(–4) cm. long, pubescent or glabrous; bracteole ovate or round, 3–9 mm. long, 3.5–6 mm. wide, rounded, clasping at the base, glabrescent or ciliate. Sepals green, elliptic, ovate or round, 0.5–1 (–1.7) cm. long, 4–9(–12.5) mm. wide, mostly obtuse, margins not crinkled, sparsely pubescent. Petals yellow or greenish, at first the inner ones with a reddish base, later all purple-brown; outer obovate to broadly elliptic or rounded, 2–3.5 (–4.5) cm. long, 1.6–2.7 cm. wide, rounded or bluntly acuminate, sparsely puberulous or pubescent, sometimes only on the margins, the margins not crinkled; inner broadly ovate to subhastate, (0.6–)1–1.6 cm. long, (0.9–)1.4–2.2(–3) cm. wide, obtuse to cuspidate, the claw (0.5–)0.7–l cm. long, pubescent or pilose save for inner side of the claw. Stamens oblong, 0.5 mm. long. Ovary globose, 0.75 mm. long, sparsely pubescent. Fruiting pedicel 1–3 cm.long; fruit green and brownish mottled, globose, 4–5 cm. in diameter, wrinkled or somewhat vertically ridged, glabrous. Seeds pale brown, ellipsoid or ovoid, compressed, 1.5–2 cm. long, 1–1.2 cm. wide.