Tree, 10-40 m, trunk sometimes fluted, 20-100 cm ø. Branchlets initially rather densely set with reddish brown, adpressed, stellate hairs and fimbriate scales, mixed with patent hirsute bundle-hairs, later glabrescent; rather slender with dark grey, sometimes brownish bark full of distinct lenticels, especially when older; terminal bud ovoid-globose, 3-9 by 2-4 mm, scales roundish, 3-5 by 2-3 mm. Stipules 3-4 by 1½ mm, recurved, hairy, very soon caducous. Leaves thick-coriaceous, (6-)10-13(-18) by (2-)3-6(-8) cm (index 1.9-3.6), widest about the middle to slightly lower or higher; base attenuate-acute to rarely rounded-acute, apex bluntly acute to ½-2 cm acuminate; surfaces with a livid tinge, discolorous, above greenish and more or less glossy, glabrous, beneath light brown and more or less dull, sometimes with a distinct cover of wax with scales hardly discernible (magnification 60!), often also with scattered hairs simple or in 2-3-fid bundles, sometimes glabrous; midrib prominent beneath, flat or impressed above; nerves (8-)9-11(-13) pairs, thin, ascending, at an angle of 45-70°, sub-parallel, arcuating towards the margin; reticulation scalariform, thin and obscure on both surfaces; petiole ½-1 cm, adaxially flat. Male rachis 10-15 cm, slender, bracts ovate-acute, 1-1.2 mm; ♂ flowers solitary or in clusters of 3, perianth lobes 6, connate at the base only, 1.2-1.5 by 1 mm, densely hairy on both sides; stamens 12, filaments 3-4 mm, anthers 0.2-0.25 mm long, pistillode 1.2-1.5 mm ø. Female rachis 5-10 cm, slender, bracts ovate, sometimes irregularly lobed, 1-1½ by 2-2½ mm; ♀ flowers laxly scattered, solitary, perianth 6-lobed, the lobes ovate, 0.8-1 by 0.3-0.5 mm, staminodes 12, rudimentary, styles 3, conical-cylindrical, recurved, 2-3 mm. Young cupule 3-5 mm stalked, densely covered with irregularly placed spines or with sparse spines in 4-5 ± concentric rows. Mature cupule on peduncle 4-5 mm ø, globose or discoid-conical, 2½-5 by 1.3-4 cm, base rounded or concave; wall 1½ mm thick, inside silky with fulvous hairs, outside densely fulvous-velvety, spines 2-21 mm long, tree-like branched (sometimes twice) or sometimes in bundles, straight to very slightly recurved, or round the base the whole spine bundles reflexed, densely hairy to subglabrous, arranged with few sturdy ones in 4-5 ± concentrical rows with much of the cupule practically smooth, to densely covering the whole cupule surface with many slender ones; dehiscence into 4 equal segments or irregularly. Fruit solitary and hence round on section, depressed-conical, 1-1½ by 2-2½ cm; apex acute to rounded or depressed, umbonate; wall 2 mm thick, scar ¼-¾ part, flat or convex, the free part hairy.
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A widely spreading tree up to 23 m tall. The bark is quite rough and yellowish. The leaves are mainly horizontal with re-curved tips. They are rich green on the upper surface and copper brown underneath. The fruit are borne on spikes 15 to 25 cm long carried near the ends of twigs and covered with a prickly envelope.
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