Shrub or tree to 20 m tall, sometimes epiphytic; bark smooth; roots warty. Leaves broadly obovate, to 15 cm long, 11 cm wide, apically rounded, truncate or emarginate, basally obtuse or broadly cuneate, stiffly coriaceous, the margins drying slightly revolute, the costa elevated above and beneath, more so beneath, and above evanescent upwards, the lateral veins numerous, parallel, ascending at 45-6O to the costa sometimes appearing to be in 2 series, straight below, the apical veins slightly arcuate in the distal 1/2-3/4; petiole stout, drying plane above, 5 mm across, minutely winged and slightly clasping at the base. Inflorescence terminal of 1(-2) flowers, peduncle 15-25 mm long, stout, drying 3-4 mm thick, bearing two scale-like cucullate, ovate bracts 5 mm long on the lower half. Flow-ers white or pink, sepals 4(-6), decussate, persistent, coriaceous, the basal sepals becoming 8-10 mm long in fruit, the superior sepals ovate becoming 2-25 mm long and wide in fruit; petals spathulate, caducous, 30-40 mm long; female flower with stamens ca. 15 in clumps of ca. 3, inserted distally in a thin disc; ovary globose, stigmas 6-15. Fruit turbinate, 4-5 cm long and broad, smooth, but lon-gitudinally striate, contracted apically to a convex stigmatic area ca. 15 mm across, dehiscing into narrow, coriaceous valves, 4-6 cm long, nearly white, wide spreading and reflexed to expose the seeds; seeds ovoid, white with a scarlet, mucilaginous covering, the embryo with the cotyledons minute, the endosperm scant (lacking?).
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