Small to medium tree 6–8 m high; bark rough, deeply fissured, tessellated, whitish grey; branchlets drooping, white; stems ridged; indumentum of long base-short top cell, uniseriate hairs on new shoots, leaves and inflorescences. Juvenile and seedling leaves Holly-like with dentate margin and bristles. Adult leaves alternate and whorled; lamina narrowly obovate, 70–110 mm long, c. 30–40 mm wide, coriaceous, glossy green, glabrescent, margin slightly undulate, apex rather rounded with a prominent mucro; petiole 30–35 mm long. Inflorescence a corymb with masses of white, aromatic, bisexual flowers; primary rachis to 25 mm long, peduncles to 12 mm long, pedicels to 5 mm long, all ridged; bracts and bracteoles persisting. Sepals ovate, c. 2 mm long, slightly hairy, spreading. Petals not cohering (?free), narrowly obovate, to 8 mm long, white, adaxial surface slightly hairy. Stamens free and not cohering; filaments longer than anthers, flared towards the base, white; anthers orange, apices rounded, dehiscing through apical slits. Pistil on a wide frilly receptacle disc; ovary slender, densely white-hairy; style tapering, minimal stigmatic development. Fruit a persisting, loculicidally dehiscent capsule, pear-shaped, fairly thin-walled, 12–13 mm long (includes 2 mm stalk), 8–13 mm diam.; epicarp pale orange-yellow, thin, rugulose; mesocarp resinous, pithy/fibrous; endocarp pale yellow; resinous. Seeds black, 1–3 per loculus, 4–5 mm long, angular, ridged, packed into an oval in each chamber; seed surface minutely pitted, distinctly ridged at sutures. *to 12 mm or c. 12 mm, same with the 5 mm?*
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