Twigs, leaf buds, stipules outside, petiole and leaf nervation beneath sparsely very long tufted golden tomentose (especially saplings and young trees) or glabrous; parts of petals exposed in bud and ovary densely shortly evenly buff puberulent. Twig c. 5 mm ø apically, dark brown suffused with pale grey, minutely verrucose-lenticellate; stipule scars prominent. Buds to 4 by 2 cm, enormous, ellipsoid, obtuse; stipules to 9 by 5 cm, elliptic, obtuse, concave. Leaves 8.5-16 by 8-15 cm, broadly ovate to suborbicular, thickly coriaceous; base obtuse to cordate; apex subacuminate or more typically obtuse; margin undulate, subrevolute; nerves 11 (-13) pairs, spreading, sharply prominent beneath, shallowly depressed above; tertiary nerves remotely scalariform, distinctly elevated beneath; petiole 4-10 cm long, 2-3 mm ø, very long. Flowers solitary on the 6 cm long axillary peduncles, subtended and enclosed in a large, to 5 by 3 cm, elliptic obtuse concave subpersistent bract; stamens 30, greatly exceeded by style at anthesis; filaments slender, columnar, short; anthers long, linear, tapering, prominently auriculate; appendage acicular, slender, c. 1/2 length of anthers; gynoecium puberulent but for the distal 1/3 of the style; ovary small, ovoid; style slender, filiform, tapering, very long. Fruit pedicel to 5 by 4 mm, expanding into the to 18 by 14 mm fusiform-ellipsoid smooth calyx tube; 2 longer lobes to 9 by 2.5 cm, oblong, obtuse, c. 1 mm wide at base, 3-nerved, the lateral 2 nerves short and the central prominently laterally branched; 3 shorter lobes to 14 by 7 mm, elliptic, obtuse, subrevolute.