Tree, 10-24 m by 30-60 cm ø; buttresses up to 1.2 m tall, 5 cm thick; bark smooth, grey. Branchlets initially tomentellous or glabrous; slender to rather sturdy, sparsely lenticellate; terminal bud ovoid-globose or ellipsoid, 3-5 by 2-3 mm, scales ovate-acute. Stipules linear, 3-7 mm long, very early caducous. Leaves thick-coriaceous, (6-)8-12(-18) by (1-)3-5(-7) cm (index 2.2-3), widest about the middle to rarely below; base attenuate to rounded, and acute, apex acute to ½-1 cm acuminate; glabrous, mostly concol-orous, glossy above, dull beneath; midrib strongly prominent beneath, slightly so above; nerves 10-15 pairs, ± prominent beneath, flatfish above, at an angle of 45-70°, parallel, ascending, arcuating towards the margin; reticulation fine, dense, more or less regularly scalariform, obscure on both surfaces; petiole 1-2½ cm, adaxially flat to deeply sulcate. Male rachis 10-17 cm, 1-2 mm ø; bracts and bracteoles ovate-acute, 1 by 1 mm; ♂ flowers in clusters of 3-7, perianth lobes membranous, 0.8-1 by 0.5-0.7 mm, densely hairy outside; stamens 12, filaments 2 mm long, anthers 0.2 mm long, pistillode 1-1½ mm ø. Female or androgynous rachis 10-15 cm, 2-3 mm ø, bracts and bracteoles ovate-acute, 1 by 1 mm; ♀ flowers in clusters of 3, perianth lobes 0.7-1 by 0.5-0.7 mm, membranous, densely hairy; staminodes 12, rudimentary, styles 3, cylindrical-conical, 1-1½ mm. Young infructescence: rachis 20-25 cm, 3 mm ø. Young cupule obovoid-globose, the segments between the 4 sutures covered with spines. Ripe cupules scattered along the rachis, (sub)sessile, obovoid-globose, sometimes distinctly 4-lobed, 3½-4 cm through; wall 1½ mm thick, inside with long, ferruginous, silky hairs, outside more or less densely hoary-puberulous or felty, rather densely set with sturdy somewhat recurved spines 4-15 mm long, solitary or in bundles, hairy with glabrous top; dehiscence into 4 segments or irregular. Fruits 2-3 per cupule, ovoid-conical, 1-1½ cm through, scar occupying ¼-⅓ part, flat-convex; free part of the wall with brownish silky tomentum.
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An evergreen tree. It grows 30 m tall. The leaves are narrowly oval and rounded at the base and tapering to the tip. They are 6-23 cm long by 3-9 cm wide. The leaf stalk is softly hairy. The seeds or nuts are siftly hairy and in a capsule that is spiny. This is 25-30 mm across.