Tree to 7 m tall, branches usually twisted and irregular. Forming a lignotuber.Bark rough throughout, thick, variably tessellated to flaky, grey to brown over reddish brown.Branchlets lack oil glands in the pith; smaller branchlets setose with long and short bristle-glands, glaucous or non-glaucous.Juvenile growth (coppice or field seedlings to 50 cm): stems rounded in cross-section, setose; juvenile leaves opposite, sessile, cordate to elliptical, 4–12.5 cm long, 3–8 cm wide, base rounded or stem-clasping, apex rounded or pointed, dull, green, setose especially on margins and main veins. Crown of juvenile leaves, opposite, sessile; blade cordate to oblong-lanceolate, 3.5–12 cm long, 2–5.7 cm wide, base amplexicaul, margin entire, apex usually pointed, flat or undulate, concolorous, dull, yellow-green to light green to grey-green, prominently setose with bristle-glands, especially on margins and main veins (rarely the leaves ± glabrous in some populations), side-veins at a wide angle to the midrib (penniveined), reticulation dense to very dense, intramarginal vein present close to margin, oil glands apparently absent from the venation pattern.Inflorescence terminal compound or solitary umbels in upper leaf axils, peduncles rounded or angled, 0–4 cm long, buds 1 or 3 per umbel, rarely 7, the cluster subtended by small leafy bracts or bracts lacking, conspicuously pedicellate (pedicels 0.4–3.5 cm long). Mature buds pyriform, 1.2–2 cm long, 0.7–1 cm wide, glaucous or non-glaucous, very conspicuously setose with long or short bristle-glands, scar absent (both opercula shed together at flowering), operculum prominently beaked, stamens inflexed, all fertile, anthers versatile, dorsifixed, oblong, dehiscing by longitudinal slits, style long and straight, stigma blunt and papillose, locules (3)4(5), with the vertical ovule rows indistinct on the placentae. Flowers red.Fruit pedicellate (pedicels 0.4–3.5 cm long), urceolate with a prominent neck which may be slightly flared outwards, 2–3.5 cm long, 2.3–3.2 cm wide, surface rough, disc descending vertically, valves (3)4(5), enclosed.Seeds brown, 12–17 mm long, ellipsoidal with terminal wing, hilum ventral. Cultivated seedlings (measured at ca node 10): cotyledons large, reniform; stems rounded in cross-section, densely setose with long bristle-glands; leaves always sessile, opposite for at least 17 nodes, elliptical to ovate or cordate, 4.3–7.5 cm long, 2–4.5 cm wide, base amplexicaul, mid-green, slightly discolorous, sparsely to moderately setose on both surfaces with bristle-glands. Note that the bristle-glands lack simple hairs. The seedlings have flexuose stems.
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