Shrub or small tree, 1–7 m. high, sometimes climbing up to 10 m., deciduous, with the flowers appearing before or with the leaves; latex clear, white, or yellow. Trunk up to 6 cm. in diam.; branches sometimes fleshy, with adherent or loose bark, smooth or sulcate; branchlets densely puberulous. Leaves petiolate; petiole 1–10 mm. long, lamina light to dark green above, silvery-grey beneath, ovate, broadly ovate, or elliptic, 0·8–2·3 times as long as wide, 6–24 x 4–18 cm., cuneate, rounded, or rarely subcordate at the base, acute or acuminate at the apex (acumen up to 10 mm. long), papyraceous or chartaceous, densely pubescent or glabrescent above, tomentose beneath, with 5–12 pairs of secondary veins; tertiary venation sometimes conspicuous. Inflorescence on long or short leafless branches, axillary or apparently so, only rarely in the forks, 1–12-flowered, sessile or pedunculate, congested, densely pubescent in all parts; pedicels 1–8 mm. long; bracts sepal-like. Flowers fragrant. Sepals subequal, ovate or narrowly ovate, (8)11–25 x 2·5–13 mm., acute; eglandulose or rarely with 10 colleters per calyx. Corolla-tube 17–26 mm. long, widening at slightly more than 1/2-4/5 of its length into a cyathiform upper part, at the mouth 8–17(21) mm. wide, densely pubescent outside, glabrous or minutely puberulous inside; corona-lobes subulate, 2·5–6·5 x 1·2–2·5 mm., minutely papillose; corolla lobes ovate, 7–15 x 4-5-10 mm., gradually narrowing into the pendulous tails; lobes (including the tails) 94–180 mm. long, pubescent outside except for the apex, glabrous inside. Stamens from 2·8 mm. exserted to 1 mm. included; filaments straight, with an abaxial swelling, 3·5–6·2 mm. long; anthers 5–7 x 1·3–2 mm., glabrous; acumen 0·1–0·4 mm. long. Ovary 1·2–2·3 x 1–2·5 mm., densely hispid with erect hairs up to 3·5 mm. long; style 11–18 mm. long; clavuncula 1·6–3 x 1·4–2·7 mm., stigma minute. Follicles divergent at an angle of 180°, tapering into an obtuse apex or ending in a knob, (15)20–38 cm. long and 1·5–3·2 cm. in diam.; exocarp pale brown, fairly thick and hard, shaggy with 4—18 mm. long villous protuberances, 0·5–1 mm. in diam. Seeds with the grain 11–24 X 2·5–5 mm., densely pubescent; rostrum glabrous for 18–60 mm. and bearing a coma for 30-50 mm.; coma 60–110 m. long.