Tree; bark flaking off in membranous plates; branchlets graceful, glabrous below (but no apical portions have been seen), ridged and lenticellate; buds silvery silky (fide Fries, presumably leaf-buds). Leaf-blades oblong-oblanceolate or oblanceolate, 15–28 cm. long, 2.5–6.5 cm. wide, distinctly acuminate at the apex, cuneate at the base, rather thick, glabrous and somewhat shining above, at first silvery silky beneath in young leaves, but soon hairs becoming sparse and lower surface at length almost glabrous; midrib impressed above, very prominent beneath; lateral nerves 15–20, prominent beneath; petiole 7–10 mm. long, thick. Flowers axillary, solitary, subsessile, borne on the leafy branchlets; peduncle attaining 1 cm. after flowering; bracts 6, imbricate below the calyx, biseriate, rounded, up to ± 1 cm. long, silky outside, glabrous inside. Sepals joined at the base, broadly ovate, much shorter than the petals, silvery silky outside. Petals thick,outer ovate-elliptic, ± 2 cm. long, 1.6 cm. wide, apiculate, inner oblong-elliptic, about the same length but narrower, narrowed at the base, all silvery silky outside, glabrous inside save for some sparse tomentum towards the apex. Stamens linear, 3 mm. long. Monocarp (only one seen) oblong, 2.7 cm. long, 1.6 cm. wide, rounded at both ends, ferruginous tomentose.
