Tall, hard-wooded tree with blackish flaky bark and flying buttresses. Young parts buff puberulent, becoming sparse but ± persistent on calyx, persistent on panicle and parts of petals exposed in bud. Twig c. 2 mm ø apically, much branched, terete, becoming smooth, blackish. Leaf bud minute, ovoid; stipules fugaceous, not seen. Leaves 5-13 by 2-4.5 cm, lanceolate-falcate, coriaceous, dull greyish minutely stellate beneath; margin frequently subrevolute; base unequal, cuneate; acumen to 1.5 cm long, slender, tapering; nerves 7-11 pairs, slender but distinctly elevated beneath, slightly elevated above, usually with prominent porous glabrous canaliculate domatia; tertiary nerves scalariform, evident on both surfaces, +-distinctly elevated beneath; petiole 7-9 mm long, slender. Panicle to 6 cm long, slender, terminal or 1-axillary; singly branched, branchlets to 1.5 cm long, bearing to 5 dense secund flowers; bracteoles fugaceous, not seen. Flower buds to 3 by 2 mm, ellipsoid. 2 outer sepals narrowly lanceolate, subacute; 3 inner suborbicular, mucronate. Stamens 15, shorter than style, in 3 subequal verticils; filaments broad and compressed at base, tapering and filiform in the distal j; anthers broadly oblong; appendage c. 3 times length of anthers, long, slender. Ovary and stylopodium conical-cylindric, sericeous, tapering somewhat abruptly beneath the short but distinct columnar style. Fruit pedicel to 2 mm long. 2 longer calyx lobes to 7 by 1.8 cm, broadly spatulate, obtuse, c. 4 mm broad above the 6 by 4 mm ovate saccate thickened base; 3 shorter lobes to 6 by 4 mm, ovate, acute, similarly saccate. Nut to 13 by 7 mm, ovoid, with tapering apiculus.