Large shrub or small tree up to c. 8 m. tall; young branches puberulous, soon becoming glabrous; bark greyish. Leaf-lamina 5–17 x 2.8–6.5 cm., coriaceous, lanceolate or narrowly ovate, apex acuminate, acute or subobtuse, cuneate and usually oblique at the base, margins entire or undulate or when young sparsely and irregularly denticulate, glabrous on both sides or puberulous on the midrib when very young, with circular and linear pellucid dots, somewhat shining above, duller below, lateral nerves in c. 9 pairs, slightly prominent on both sides, venation laxly reticulate; petiole up to 1.3 cm. long, channelled above, puberulous or glabrous. Flowers greenish-white, in dense axillary fascicles on a cushion of minute, brown, membranous, ovate bracteoles with ciliolate margins; pedicels 1–2 mm. long, puberulous. Sepals 5, 2–3 x 2–2.5 mm., ovate, obtuse at the apex, margins membranous, puberulous or glabrescent on the back. Receptacle cupular, c. 2.5 mm. wide at the mouth, c. 1 mm. long, from puberulous to villous outside. Staminal tube united for about 0.5 mm. and then dividing into 10 fertile stamens and 10 alternating staminodes, glabrous; filaments c. 0.8 mm. long, glabrous; anthers 0.9 x 0.6 mm., narrowly ovate, connective bluntly apiculate; staminodes up to 0.8 mm. long, oblong, villous. Ovary ovoid, hirsute at least towards the apex; style very short; stigma capitate. Fruit an angular, ellipsoid capsule splitting from above into 3–4 longitudinal valves. Seeds c. 10, c. 4 x 3 mm., ellipsoid with a pale smooth testa and clasped by a fleshy lobate aril hiding more than half the seed.