Tree 7.5–15 m. tall; bark thin, grey; branchlets at first pubescent or densely silky, later glabrescent, brown, rugose, densely lenticellate. Leaf-blades very large, oblanceolate, 21–75 cm. long, 5.7–21.5(–25) cm. wide, obtuse or shortly acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, thin, red and drooping when young, later chartaceous, glabrous above, at first densely silky beneath, later with dense but inconspicuous adpressed hairs; midrib impressed above, very prominent beneath; lateral nerves ± 30, slightly prominent on both surfaces; petiole 0.6–2 cm. long, very thick; leaf-buds lanceolate, covered with rusty hairs. Flowers solitary (?always) on trunk or thicker branches; buds at first subsessile, with ± 6 reniform or elliptic-ovate imbricate adpressed silky pubescent bracts 0.8–3.5 cm. long, 1–4 cm. wide; adult peduncles 1–1.5 cm. long, thick. Sepals ovate, 3–5.5 cm. long, 3–4.3 cm. wide, shortly united at the base, glabrous inside, densely silky pilose outside, eventually becoming free from the receptacle but remaining as a loose collar about the peduncle. Petals white (?creamy) outside, purple (?perhaps really maroon) inside; outer valvate, elliptic, 6–7 cm. long, 4.3–4.7 cm. wide, obtuse at the apex, narrowed to the base, pilose outside, glabrous inside; inner imbricate at the apex, elliptic, cucullate, 5–5.3 cm. long, 3.6–3.8 cm. wide, ± distinctly clawed at the base, hairy only on base of midrib outside. Stamens 5 mm. long. Carpels up to 160, columnar, angled, 6 mm. long, 2.2 mm. wide, pilose, with 11–16 biseriate ovules. Monocarps 10–80, oblong-obovoid or oblong-falcate, 2.8–6 cm. long, 1.3–3.2 cm. wide, 1–16-seeded, not or scarcely constricted between the seeds, distinctly narrowed or beaked and curved at the apex, yellow, densely brown tomentose; stipes 3–6 mm. long. Seeds compressed-ellipsoid, 1.8–2.3 cm. long, 1–1.1 cm. wide, 6–8 mm. thick.
