Tree 12–50 m. with straight bole clear for ± 80% of the height, sometimes slightly buttressed at the base; crown small, lightly branched; bark white, fawn or dark grey, smooth; slash white, but copious red juice hides it at once; glabrous save for adpressed ferruginous hairs at apex of seedlings and young parts of adult shoots.. Leaves grey and glaucous beneath, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 8.5–29 cm. long, 3.3–7.3 cm. wide, acute at the apex, cuneate or abruptly narrowed at the base; petiole 1 cm. long.. Flowers yellowish or yellow-brown, 2–2.5 mm. wide, in glomerules 5–8 mm. diameter arranged in ferruginous tomentose inflorescences ± 2.5–7 cm. long, 3–5 cm. wide; peduncles and secondary peduncles 0.5–1 cm. long; secondary branches ± 3 cm. long; bracts broadly ovate, obtuse.. Male flowers: perianth-lobes broadly ovate, 2 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, reflexed; filament column 2 mm. long; anthers 1 mm. long.. Female buds globose, 2 mm. diameter.. Fruit yellow-green, ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid, 5.5–6(–6.5) cm. long, 3–3.2(–4) cm. wide, the fleshy pericarp splitting longitudinally into 2 spoon-like lobes.. Seed cream or pale brown, ellipsoid to oblong-ellipsoid, 4.5–5 cm. long, 2.8–3 cm. wide, hard, covered with a thin cream, yellow or creamy brown glandular punctate aril; testa ± 0.5 mm. thick; kernel 4 cm. long, 2 cm. thick; cotyledons 2 mm. wide.. Fig. 1.
Occurs in isolated patches in evergreen rain forests of Tanzania, on steep mountain slopes at altitudes of 900-1,200 metres.
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