Evergreen tree (2.5-)7.5-15(-18) m. tall, with black or dark blackish grey very rough bark with deep longitudinal fissures; crown rounded or ‘ bushy, spreading’; branchlets whitish grey or blackish, rugose and striate, the young shoots rusty tomentose; wood red.. Leaves drying dark grey above, brown beneath, elliptic or oblong-elliptic, less often narrowly oblong (in Somalia), 2-8.5 cm. long, 1-3.7 cm. wide, obtuse at the apex, rounded at the base, at first ferruginous pubescent but soon glabrous and shiny above, rusty pubescent beneath with ± persistent curled hairs; midrib (and venation to some extent) impressed above, prominent beneath; petiole 3-5 mm. long.. Male flowers sweetly scented, solitary or paired on young shoots; calyx densely adpressed silky outside; calyx-tube ± 1 mm. long; calyx-lobes 4, triangular, 2 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide; corolla creamy-yellow or cream, urceolate, 8 mm. long, 4 mm. wide near base, coriaceous, very shortly 4-lobed; corolla-lobes rounded, 1 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, densely adpressed silky hairy outside, glabrous inside; stamens 12, basal; filaments subulate, 1-2 mm. long; anthers linear, 3 mm. long; rudimentary ovary absent.. Female flowers solitary or several together; pedicels ± 2 mm. long; calyx 5 mm. long, densely ferruginous hairy inside and out, 4-lobed; calyx-lobes triangular with margins soon folded back; corolla brown outside, greenish inside, 5-6 mm. long.. Fruit yellow, globose or ellipsoid to globose-ovoid, 2-2.8 cm. long, 1.7-2.5 cm. wide, fleshy, densely adpressed silky ferruginous, later glabrous, shiny and rugulose; fruiting calyx corrugated and folded, persistently ferruginous pubescent on both sides, the lobes 8 mm. long, 7 mm. wide.. Seeds dark brown, compressed-oblong, 1.1-1.5 cm. long, 6-7 mm. wide, rounded on outer edge and angular on inner or ± rounded on both, shiny, rugulose.. Fig. 3/26.
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A tree. It grows 18 m tall. The bark is dark grey to black. It is rough with cracks along it. The leaves are simple and alternate. The leaf blade is 2-9 cm long by 1-4 cm wide. It is narrowly oval. The flowers are cream and have a sweet scent. The fruit is oval or round and yellow. It is 2-3 cm long by 2-3 cm wide.
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