Deciduous tree 10–27(–45) m. tall, ± 30–50 cm. diameter at breast height (said occasionally to attain 90 cm.); bark pale or dark grey, smooth; young branchlets with dense usually spreading yellowish hairs, later adpressed pubescent and finally glabrescent or glabrous, wrinkled. Leaf-blades oblong-elliptic or elliptic, 4–12(–28) cm. long, l.6–5.4(–10) cm. wide, acute to long-acuminate at the apex, cuneate or rounded at the base, sometimes asymmetrical, papery to somewhat coriaceous, glabrous above save for pubescence on the midrib, adpressed pubescent beneath when young, sometimes sparsely so save for some denser more spreading hairs on the midrib, later glabrescent or almost entirely glabrous; young leaf-buds silky hairy; midrib impressed above, prominent beneath; lateral nerves 5–13, prominent beneath; venation reticulate but rather obscure; petioles 2–5 mm. long, pubescent or glabrous. Flowers polygamous, extra-axillary or leaf-opposed, solitary or in 2–8(–12)-flowered fascicles, often on short shoots 1–2 mm. long; peduncles 1–3 mm. long, pubescent; basal bracts small, pubescent; bracteole situated just below the calyx, cucullate, 1–2 mm. long, 3–3.5 mm. wide, pubescent; pedicels 3–9 mm. long, pubescent. Sepals broadly ovate or semicircular, 2 mm. long and 2–3 mm. wide, joined at the base, pubescent outside, glabrous inside, persistent. Petals lemon-yellow or greenish-white, subequal, linear-oblong or lanceolate, (0.6–)1–2.8 cm. long, 1.5–2.5 mm. wide, rounded at the apex, widened at the base, densely finely pubescent all over save for a glabrous area at base inside, with folds inside at base of outer petals. Stamens linear, numerous (20–40) in ♂ flowers and 2–4 mm. long, 5–12 in hermaphrodite flowers and 1–2 mm. long; connective-prolongation oblong-ovate, compressed and often irregularly lobed. Carpels 13–20, linear-oblong, 2 mm. long, compressed, pubescent, sparsely puberulous or glabrous; stigma rhombic or elliptic in outline, 0.5 mm. long, compressed, ± lobed, pubescent or glabrescent. Fruiting pedicels 0.3–2.2 cm. long; monocarps (2–)8–10(–13), purplish-red or dark brown, fleshy, glossy, ellipsoid to globose, 1.2–1.8 cm. long, 0.9–1.5 cm. wide, l–2(–3)-seeded, not constricted between the seeds, finely tuberculate-rugose and also with finer roughenings visible only under a lens, glabrous; stipes 5–8(–10) mm. long. Seeds straw-coloured or chestnut, hemispherical, subglobose or somewhat compressed (cushion-shaped), 1–1.2 cm. in diameter, 0.5–1 cm. thick, strongly wrinkled-punctate, with a circumferential groove.
