Tree 6–12 m. tall, most parts lemon scented; bark grey-brown, smooth; branchlets grey or brown, rugulose, lenticellate, at first covered with silky silvery or ferruginous adpressed hairs but later glabrous. Leaf-blades elliptic-oblong, 8–41 cm. long, 3–12.3 cm. wide, obtuse or obscurely acuminate (rarely retuse) at the apex, rounded or broadly cuneate at the base, at first thin, later rather thick, glabrous and somewhat shining above, obscurely adpressed pubescent beneath; midrib impressed above, very prominent beneath; lateral nerves 17–22, slightly prominent beneath; petiole 0.5–1.2 cm. long, thick; leaf-buds with 6–12 distichous parts arranged as in a grass spikelet, very densely and velvety adpressed sericeous and villous at the margins. Flowers solitary or several in fascicles on the old wood; buds at first subsessile, with about 6 reniform imbricate adpressed silky bracts, 0.5–1.2 cm. long, 0.8–2 cm. wide; adult peduncles 1–1.7 cm. long. Sepals broadly reniform, 1 cm. long, 2 cm. wide, obscurely mucronulate, adpressed silky outside, margins villous. Petals creamy-brown outside, maroon inside save for the creamy-brown margin, elliptic, 2.5–3 cm. long, 2–2.5 cm. wide, rounded or subacute at the apex, adpressed silky outside, glabrous inside or only pubescent towards the apex. Stamens 3.5 mm. long, 0.7 mm. wide. Carpels 50–60, linear-oblong, 5 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, densely pubescent, with 10–15 ± uniseriate ovules. Monocarps 50–60, narrowly cylindrical, 4–8 cm. long, 1 cm. wide, 3–10-seeded, distinctly constricted between the seeds, greenish, sparsely adpressed pubescent; stipes ±1.3 cm. long. Seeds yellow-brown, compressed-ellipsoidal, 8 mm. long, 7 mm. wide, 5 mm. thick.