Tree or rarely a shrub 2.4–18 m. tall, with smooth or rough scaly grey or brown bark and crooked or gnarled bole and branches; stems pubescent when young, later glabrous; cork grey but often with some distinct purple layers; slash greenish or yellow. Leaf-blades elliptic, 5.8–18 cm. long, 2.2–8.9 cm. wide, acute to acuminate at the apex, rounded to broadly cuneate at the base, shining above, glabrous, save for tufts of hairs in the axils beneath and some hairs on the midrib, or slightly finely pubescent all over when young; petiole 0.5–1.6 cm. long; stipules short, 1–2.5 mm. long, mucronate at the apex, sometimes splitting into 2 parts, hairy inside, or sometimes ovate or triangular and up to 7 mm. long. Flowers heterostylous; peduncles (1–)3 per node opposite a single leaf, alternating at successive nodes, 2.5–7.5 cm. long, often densely pubescent when young; at the base of these 3 peduncles there is a usually stalked cup-shaped gland 2–6 mm. long; capitula (8–)10–13(–14)-flowered, 4–7 mm. in diameter (excluding corollas). Calyx-tube pubescent when young, cupular, ± 2 mm. long, the truncate limb ± 0.5 mm. Corolla heavily scented, white or greenish yellow outside, white inside; tube 1.2–1.6 cm. long, widened at the apex; lobes ovate-lanceolate, 3.5–5 mm. long, 1.5–2.5 mm. wide; throat glabrous. Ovary 2-locular; style 8 or 11 mm. long; stigma-lobes ± 4 mm. or 7 mm. long. Syncarps green, hard for a long time but ultimately becoming soft and black, 0.8–2.2(–2.5) cm. in diameter; pyrenes dark reddish brown, compressed ovoid, 5.5–6.5 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, very hard. Seeds yellowish, soft, elliptic, about 3.5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, 0.4 mm. thick.
