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Deciduous shrub or small tree up to 6 m. high, sometimes suffruticose. Bole sometimes spinescent towards the base. Bark grey, ± smooth. Leaves chartaceous, drying dull dark brown or grey–green above, paler beneath; lamina 1·5 x 0·7–11 x 2·5 cm., obovate to oblanceolate, apex rounded to acute, base cuneate; lower surface sparsely to densely sericeous–pubescent, especially on the nerves; secondary nerves in 5–6 pairs. Male flowers solitary, axillary or in axils of reduced leaves towards base of current year’s shoot; pedicels 0·7–1·7 cm. long. Calyx up to 0·8 cm. long, densely sericeous–pubescent, deeply cleft almost to the base; lobes 5, narrowly deltate or lanceolate–acuminate. Corolla up to 1 cm. long, campanulate, widely open at the throat, densely strigulose outside, lobed to just below the middle; lobes 5, ovate–oblong, obtuse. Stamens 10, 0·3–0·45 cm. long; filaments very short, glabrous; anthers narrowly lanceolate, apiculate, densely setose with long hairs at base of connective and shorter hairs along its length on both surfaces. Pistillode similar to functional gynoecium but rudimentary ovary conoidal and styles not bifid and stigmatic at the apex. Female flowers similar to male. Staminodes 10, 0·1–0·2 cm. long, densely setose. Ovary subglobose, ridged, 0·25 x 0·25 cm., tomentellous; locules 6, 8 or 10; styles (3–4)5, common style puberulous, branches glabrous, ending in a shallowly bi–lobed stigma. Fruit red, becoming black, ovoid or globose, apiculate, up to 2 x 1·5 cm., puberulous or glabrescent. Seeds 1–6 or more, brown, up to 1·3 cm. long; endosperm smooth. Fruiting calyx accrescent, up to 1·5 cm. long, lobes narrowly deltate, ultimately strongly reflexed. Chromosome numbers:. 2n = 30, 60.