Tree 15 m tall, deciduous in the late dry season. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough, persistent, clearly tessellated and blackish grey for basal part or whole of trunk then abruptly becoming smooth, white to pale grey, shedding in thin flakes.Younger branchlets setose to scabrid with bristle-glands which in this species lack simple hairs; branchlets lack oil glands in the pith. Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems rounded in cross-section, setose with bristle-glands to sparsely so; juvenile leaves always petiolate, opposite, cordate, 15–35 cm long, 10–23 cm wide, base usually lobed, apex rounded, margin entire, green, dull, setose with bristle-glands.Crown of intermediate to adult leaves, opposite or with a few alternate, petiolate, petioles 1–3.3(4) cm long; blade predominantly cordate to orbicular or ovate, (6)9–18(25.5) cm long, (4.2)5–12.5(15.6) cm wide, ± undulate, base lobed, rounded or truncate, margin entire or distantly sub-crenulate, apex rounded or broadly pointed, concolorous, dull, green, setose with bristle-glands, side-veins at greater than 45° to midrib, reticulation dense to very dense, intramarginal vein present, oil glands obscure. The new season’s leaf growth is often reddish purple at first.Inflorescence borne on leafless branchlets before crown replacement, axillary compound, the rhachis consisting of a basal internode ca 0.2–0.7 cm long, a second internode absent or 0.2–1 cm long, and peduncles of variable length within a single inflorescence, 0–1.6(2.4) cm long, buds in 7s or possibly more than 7 per umbel (often difficult to tell especially if peduncles are reduced), strongly pedicellate (pedicels 1.5–3.5 cm). Mature buds pyriform, 0.5–0.8 cm long, 0.4–0.6 cm wide, smooth, scar present (outer operculum shed early), operculum shallowly rounded, sometimes apiculate, stamens inflexed, all fertile, anthers oblong, dorsifixed, versatile, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma tapered, locules 3, the ovules not arranged in distinct vertical rows on the placentae or sometimes arranged in about 5 rows. Flowers creamy white.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 1.5–3.5 cm long), cylindrical to barrel-shape to ± urceolate, 0.9–1.7 cm long, 0.7–1.4 cm wide, thin-walled, disc descending vertically, valves 3, enclosed.Seeds brown, 3–5 mm long, saucer-shaped, smooth, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): not grown.
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