Evergreen trees, up to 12 m tall; bark gray. Young branchlets pilose. Stipules linear-lanceolate, 2-9 cm, deciduous; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate, 10-30 × 5-15 cm, abaxially with silvery white or slightly golden scales, adaxially glabrous, base acute or subcordate, apex acuminate or obtuse. Inflorescence paniculate, terminal or axillary. Calyx red, urceolate, ca. 6 × 2.5-4 mm, 4-6-lobed, both surfaces stellate hairy, lobes triangular. Male flowers: androgynophore 2-3 mm. Anthers 8-12, in 2 rings. Female flowers shorter than male flowers; staminodes 4-10 around base of ovary. Ovary globose, slightly 5-angular, puberulent; style short; stigma 5-lobed. Fruit drupelike, brown, hard, ellipsoid, ca. 3.5 cm, apex with ca. 1 cm wing. Seeds ovoid. Fl. Jun-Nov.