Shrub or small tree 2–7 m high; branchlets drooping, densely tomentose. Leaves glabrous above, pubescent below; petiole 6–10 mm long; lamina lanceolate, sometimes broadly so, 9.5–19 cm long, 2.5–5 cm wide, ± rounded at base, regularly serrate, acuminate; midrib prominent on both surfaces, flattened above, raised beneath. Male inflorescence axillary, c. 2.5–3 cm long, 1–3-flowered; pedicels 10–15 mm long, densely short pubescent becoming glabrous and glaucous. Male flowers depressed turbinate, to c. 7 mm high, 10 mm diam., thick-walled, hard, becoming glabrous and glaucous; tepals 4, as two pairs; stamens c. 25–40, c. 2–2.5 mm long; filaments very short, the anthers ± sessile. Female inflorescence axillary or commonly subterminal, 1 (–3)-flowered; pedicels 15–25 mm long, densely short pubescent, becoming glabrous and glaucous. Female flowers depressed globose-turbinate, c. 6–10 mm high, 11–15 mm diam., thick-walled, hard, becoming glabrous and glaucous; tepals 4, as 2 pairs; carpels numerous (over 100), c. 2 mm long, ovary c. 1 mm long, clothed in long straight hairs; stigma elongate, c. 1 mm long. Drupes ovoid, c. 16–20 mm long, 12 mm wide, reddish purple to bluish or black with a glaucous bloom.
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