Tree 9–27 m tall, to 1.5 m DBH; bole cylindrical, lacking buttresses or with large buttresses to 2.5 m, bark rough, brown to grey, flaking off in small pieces ± 1 cm wide; slash pink or red, with a reticulate pattern, rapidly turning brown; ultimate branchlets grey, rough and wrinkled, 5–8 mm wide; bud-scales triangular, 5 mm long, 2 mm wide, densely tomentose, with pale brown patent stellate hairs. Leaf-blade widely elliptic, rarely broadly ovate or suborbicular, (10–)11–16 cm long, (5.5–)10–16(–19) cm wide, apex rounded to subacute, sometimes shortly subacuminate, base cordate, the sinus (0.3–)1–1.5(–3) cm deep, texture papery, glabrous and drying dark green above, subscabrid with sparse, pale brown cruciform hairs beneath, drying grey; petiole slightly swollen at base and tip, terete, (2–)4–6.5 cm long, 1–3 mm wide, glabrous, rarely subscabrid, with indumentum as lower leaf surface; stipules caducous. Inflorescences produced with the leaves, (1–)2–7 per stem, each 5–15.5 cm long, 1.5–4.5 mm wide with 10–35 branches, indumentum as bud-scales; bracts ovate-acuminate, 7 mm long, 3 mm wide, pale brown tomentose; lowest branch 2–4 cm from the base, 0.8–3 cm long, bearing 1–4 partial peduncles each 5–9-flowered; pedicels 1.5–4.5 mm long. Flowers green outside, deep red inside, with campanulate perianth 4–7 mm long, 4–5 mm wide, divided into 5 triangular-acute lobes 1–1.5 mm long, 0.7–1 mm wide, outside with appressed, wide, flaccid, colourless, simple hairs, inner surface largely glabrous except the teeth and extreme base which densely covered in fine white simple hairs. Fruit usually with 3 follicles; follicles ellipsoid, 6–10 cm long, 3–4.5 cm wide, dehiscing flat, then ± 4.5 cm long, 8–10.5 cm wide, rostrum short and blunt, 0.3–0.9 cm long, stipe stout, 0.7–1 cm long, pericarp woody, 3–6 mm thick, outer surface red, then rusty brown, tomentellous, inner surface softly tomentose, pale brown; seeds glossy black, ellipsoid, 13–19 mm long, 9–11 mm wide, hilum white, terminal, elliptic 1–2 mm long with on a long margin a small globose orange aril, 0.5–1 mm wide; seed-stalk absent, detached seed leaving a white elliptic scar on the inner pericarp surface.
