Small tree 3-12 m. tall; trunk straight, cylindrical; bark grey; slash white turning yellow-brown.. Leaves coppery when young, drying leaden grey, oblong-elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 5-12 cm. long, 1.5-6.5 cm. wide, shortly and bluntly subacuminate to distinctly narrowly acuminate at the apex (see note), cuneate to ± rounded at the base, subcoriaceous, slightly revolute at the margin, glabrous; lateral nerves in ± 8 pairs, slightly raised beneath, the venation forming a dense but not very conspicuous reticulation beneath; petiole 7-10 mm. long.. Male flowers: bracts ovate, 1.5 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, keeled; pedicel 2 mm. long; calyx inflated in bud, later tube 1 mm. long; calyx-lobes 1.5 mm. long; corolla conical, 6 mm. long; corolla-lobes 3-4, 5 mm. long, 2 mm. wide, rounded; stamens 16-17, ± half with filaments 1 mm. long and rest 3 mm. long.. Female flowers: similar to male buds, the corolla enclosed in 3-5-angled inflated calyx, 6 mm. long; corolla (immature) 4 mm. long, lobed to halfway; ovary 2 mm. long, glabrous; style 1 mm. long; staminodes 4, 1.5 mm. long.. Fruits yellow, borne singly on the older twigs and branches, broadly ellipsoid, 1.8 cm. long, 1.6 cm. wide, glabrous, completely enclosed in the dark red to black soft accrescent calyx; pedicels stout, 1-3 mm. long; fruiting calyx inflated, much larger than the fruit, subglobose-cordiform, up to 3.5 cm. long, 3-3.5 cm. wide, with 4-5 shallow grooves alternating with 4-5 ridges, lobed only at the extreme apex, the lobes ± 5 mm. long, incurved.. Seeds 3, black, 1 cm. long, 5 mm. wide, 4 mm. thick.. Fig. 3/16.
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