Shrubs or trees, to 13 m high; trunk to 25 cm in diameter; young branchlets glabrous. Leaves with the blades broadly elliptic to elliptic-ovate, 7-13'cm long and 3.5-7 cm wide, entire, rounded or obtuse apically, obtuse basally and usually shortly and abruptly decurrent into the petiole, glabrous and lustrous above and with prominent venation, densely covered with a minute whitish tomentum beneath; petioles stout, 4-15 mm long. Inflorescences spicate, opposite, the rachis elongate and the pairs of individual flowers 5-8 mm distant from each other, the spikes numerous, forming lax panicles 5-17 cm long, the branches of the panicles minutely tomentellous; bracts and bractlets rounded, obtuse apically, tomentulose. Flowers with the corolla ca. 4 mm long, the tube glabrous, the lobes obovate, subtruncate basally, sericeous on the outer surface, glabrous within; style nearly obsolete.