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Leaves subcoriaceous, usually drying greenish–brown, shining on both surfaces; lamina c. 18 x 6·5 cm., very variable in shape and size, lanceolate, elliptic, oblanceolate–elliptic or oblanceolate, apex acuminate, base rounded or cuneate, slightly decurrent, margin often revolute, especially at the base; acumen 1·8–2·5 x c. 0·5–0·8 cm. at the base, deltate, apex rounded; lower surface strigulose–puberulous on the nerves, sparsely so on the lamina; lateral nerves in 8–10 pairs, prominent beneath, anastomosing in loops near the margin; intermediate nerves, tertiary nerves and veins forming a close reticulum prominent on both surfaces.
Ovary 0·5–0·6 x 0·3–0·4 cm., ovoid–conic, brown–tomentose; styles 4–5, 0·2 cm. long, united at the base, each ending in a bilobed, fleshy stigma; locules 8 or 10, uniovulate, but sometimes imperfectly separated near apex of ovary.
Female flowers subsessile, solitary or 2–5 together in leaf–axils or on older branchlets, surrounded at the base by several bracts up to 1 cm. long, similar to the male, but larger and calyx sometimes more deeply divided.
Fruiting calyx accrescent, persistently fulvous–brown– or black–tomentose, cup–shaped and concealing the lower half to two thirds of the fruit; lobes 5, 0·4–2·2 cm. long.
Stamens 20–30, c. 1 cm. long, filaments 0·2–0·3 cm. long, completely fused to base of corolla–tube; anthers linear, slightly apiculate, densely setulose for whole length.
Corolla 1·8–2·2 cm. long, fulvous–tomentellous outside; tube up to 1·2 x 0·5 cm., cylindric, not constricted at the throat; lobes (4) 5 (6), ovate–oblong, obtuse.
Fruit c. 2·5(3) cm. in diameter, subglobose or broadly ellipsoid, with persistent styles, brown– or black–tomentose in patches; seeds 8 or 10.
Calyx 0·7–0·8 cm. long, cyathiform, tomentose outside with chocolate–brown hairs, tube 0·5–0·6 cm. long, lobes 5(6), deltate.
Male flowers subsessile in 1–12–flowered fascicles in the leaf–axils and on the older branchlets but not on trunk.
Young branchlets tomentellous with black or dark brown, spreading hairs; older branchlets smooth and black.
Slash black outside, pale biscuit-brown inside, yellow towards inner edge, not darkening
Staminodes 5–10, as long as the corolla–tube, similar to the stamens but more slender.
Pistillode 0·1 x 0·2 cm., depressed–globose, glabrous or bearing a tuft of hairs.
Bole long, straight, slender, without buttresses
Small or medium-sizedForest tree 20-65 ft. high
Bark black, smooth, hard and brittle like glass
Bark black, hard and brittle, usually smooth.
Heartwood sometimes with black veins
Fruits sometimes borne on stem.
Tree (6) 10–20 m. high.
Calyx blackish-brown
Sapwood pale yellow
Flowers fragrant
Bole slender.
Corolla white
