Tree to 10 m with fire tolerant stems, or shrub to 3 m with lignotuber. Bark thick, verrucose, friable, greyish pink or pale brown. Stems pubescent, glabrescent. Leaves: petiole 8-17 mm long; lamina oblong, 8-25 cm long, 1-4 cm wide, truncate; margins recurved, shallowly dentate; both surfaces tomentose, glabrescent except pits in lower surface. Inflorescence terminal, 4-12 cm long; involucral bracts tomentose, falling early. Flowers pale to deep pink or red with silvery indumentum, sometimes cream or brown; style similar to perianth but pale in lower half. Perianth 29-38 mm long including limb of 5-6 mm, silky pubescent outside, glabrous inside. Pistil curved, 37-41 mm long, glabrous but minutely papillose in upper half; pollen presenter narrowly fusiform, 2-2.5 mm long, 8-ribbed. Old flowers usually soon falling. Follicles up to 25, prominent, narrowly obovate, 25-35 mm long, 10-15 mm high, 10-15 mm wide, beaked, smooth, closely pubescent, mottled. Seed obovate, 23-30 mm long; seed body obovate, 10-11 mm long, 11-14 mm wide, pitted near margin outside, muricate inside.
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