Trees to 15 m tall; twigs slightly compressed, drying black with prominent lenticels, minutely puberulent, especially at the nodes. Leaves elliptical, to 10 cm long, apically acuminate or obtuse, basally acuminate, the midvein prominent, the lateral veins, ca. 5 on each side, sometimes obscure above, reticulate be-neath, appearing glabrate but with a few scattered hairs along the length and in domatia near the axils of the lower veins, and generally vestite with scattered, minute, subsessile, peltate, scutellate glandular trichomes. Inflorescences open, many-flowered, dichasial panicles to 10 cm long, pyramidal to globose, mostly with a definite axis, the branches and pedicels subtended by narrow, scalelike bractlets; pedicels 1-3 mm long, angled, minutely puberulent, sometimes with 1-2 minute scalelike bracteoles along the length. Flowers showy, odorous (Stand-ley); calyx glabrate, funnelform, ca. 1 mm long, 4-lobed to ca. halfway down, the lobes deltoid; corolla white, the tube not exceeding the calyx, the lobes mostly 4, linear, straplike, 1-2 mm wide, 10-20 mm long, often unequal; stamens 2, the filaments short, inserted between the corolla lobes near the top of the tube, op-posite one another, the anthers oblong, the thecae latrorse, the connective broad with a bent and ventrally transposed apical umbo; style short, cylindrical, apically 2-lobed, the lobes ventrally stigmatic, the ovary glabrous. Fruits (Standley) white, compressed, elliptical drupes ca. 2 cm long, 1 cm wide, acute on each end, veined on each side.
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