Big deciduous tree up to 45 m high, with heavy dome-like crown and steep and rather narrow buttresses. Bark pinkish grey to light greyish fawn, with fine, close, transverse furrows, becoming slightly dippled scaly (CORNER). Leaves coriaceous, obovate-oblong, elliptic, or elliptic-lanceolate, 16½-32 by 7-14 cm, pubescent on both surfaces when young, usually glabrescent except especially on the midrib and nerves; base cuneate; apex obtuse, sometimes acute, or emarginate; nerves 17-27 pairs, prominent beneath, distinct or faint above; veins reticulate, or transverse and parallel, often distinct on both surfaces; petiole obscure or very short (c. ⅓ cm). Panicles up to 23½ cm long, appearing before or with the young leaves; pedicels 1½-4 mm, not articulated. Flower-buds ovoid-oblong, 3½-5 by 1¼-2 mm, acuminate. Calyx 3½-5 mm long, circumscissile, puberulous outside. Petals imbricate, lanceolate or linear, 3-5 by 1-1½ mm, puberulous outside, papillose and pilose inside; the central part of the lower ⅔ mm longitudinally adnate to the torus. Stamens 5, c. 2¾ mm, filaments hairy; anthers oblong, c. ½ mm long. Torus cylindric, c. 1 mm long. Ovary subglobose, ½-¾ mm ø, glabrous; stipe ⅓-l mm; style terminal, ⅓-1½ mm. Drupe on a centric stalk (1¼-1½ cm), subglobose, c. 3¼ cm ø, brown or dark brown, smooth; sometimes with wing-like, enlarged, lanceolate petals, 1-2 by ⅓ cm, rose-red when fresh: embryo subglobose, c. 2½ cm Ø; cotyledons free.
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