Shrub or tree, up to 10-25 m tall. Leaves dimorphic, the earlier leaves very large elliptic, apex rounded or mucronulate, base cuneate to obtuse, 12-14 by 5.5-7 cm, purple or reddish tinged, glaucous beneath, with petioles 3.5-8.5 cm long, hard chartaceous, the later leaves narrowly elliptic, obovate or oblanceolate, apex mucronulate, base cuneate, 4.5-9 by 2.5-2.7 cm, margins revolute, coriaceous, dark green above, lighter beneath, but not glaucous shining; lateral veins 7-9 pairs, thin, slightly prominent on both surfaces, the blades of earlier leaves usually 3 times larger than those of later ones; petioles 1-2.5 cm long. Staminate inflorescences flat, c. 3 cm long, green, calyx absent or bracteate, the bracts 1 or 2, free, longer than filaments, or 3 or 4 very short in youth from the base of stamens; stamens 5—7(—11), filaments green 0.2-0.4 mm long, anthers oblong or oblong-elliptic, 0.7-0.8 mm long, yellow, apiculate; pedicels 4-7 mm long. Pistillate inflorescences 1.5 cm long, sepals numerous, free, elliptic, mixed with many undifferentiated staminodes, green, ovary purple, styles divaricate, as long as ovary, stigmas greenish elliptic-ovoidal, 2 mm long; pedicels 2-4 mm long. Fruiting axes angulate, 3-8.5 cm long; calyx caducous, staminodial scars and calyx scars (?) prominent, in 1 or 2 whorls. Drupes ellipsoid, elliptic-globose, 10-15 mm long, 6-8 mm in diam., mostly light green, dull violet or black, smooth or verrucose to tuberculate, soft, somewhat juicy with one large seed when ripe, stigmas divaricate; fruit stalks 0.7-1 cm long.
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