A slender shrub 6–8 ft. high; young branchlets twiggy, minutely puberulous. Leaves oblong-elliptic or obovate-elliptic, abruptly and obtusely caudate-acuminate, narrowed or rounded to the base, 4–8 1/2 in. long, 1–3 in. broad, chartaceous, glabrous on both surfaces, with prominent straw-coloured venation below; midrib slightly impressed above, very prominent below; lateral nerves 6–12, diverging from the midrib at a wide angle, prominently looped and branched well within the margin, sometimes slightly impressed above, prominent below; venation slender and rather loose, conspicuous below; petiole 2–3 lin. long, wrinkled and minutely puberulous; stipules subpersistent, parallel with the shoot, lanceolate, acute, 2–3 lin. long, somewhat rigidly chartaceous, finely puberulous outside. Male flower-heads at the apex of a short axillary bracteate peduncle, globose, in the young state about 1 1/2 lin. in diam., at length 3 lin. in diam., with a conspicuous covering of peltate tipped puberulous bracts. Male perianth-lobes shortly ciliate; stamens 2; filaments exserted, glabrous; anthers 1/4 lin. long, broadly ellipsoid. Female heads not known. —Engl. Monogr. Morac. Afr. 34, t. xv. fig. A.
