Shrub or treelet 2-7 m. Twigs 1.5-3 (-4) mm diameter, glabrescent, hairs rusty, 0.1 mm; bark finely striate, not flaking, lenticels absent or inconspicuous. Leaves membranous, elliptic to obovate(-oblong), 12-27 by 5.5-11.5 cm, base attenuate, apex acute or broadly rounded, the tip acute-acuminate; upper surface drying dark brown, without or with very minute paler dots, lower surface with hairs rather sparse, 0.1 mm, persistent, especially on the midrib, or late glabrescent, nerves not contrasting in colour; dots absent; nerves 10-15 pairs, sometimes with intersecondary nerves, thin and flat above, much raised beneath, lines of interarching distinct, irregular; venation lax, rather indistinct; petiole 10-16 by 1.5-2.5 mm; leaf bud 7-12 by 1-2 mm, hairs 0.1-0.2 mm. Inflorescences (male) among the leaves, 1.5-5 by 1.5-4 cm, peduncle 0.6-1.5 cm long, rather few-flowered, with woolly stellate-dendroid hairs 0.1-0.2 mm, 2 (or 3) times branched; female inflorescences smaller; bracts subulate, to 5 mm, pubescent, caducous; flowers solitary or up to 3 together, ± clavate; perianth 2-lobed, with scattered stellate hairs 0.1 (-0.2) mm, densest towards base, pedicel tapering, pubescent, not articulated. Male flowers: pedicel 7-8 by 2-3 mm, buds subglobose, 2-3 by 2-3.2 mm, gradually passing into the tapered pedicel, forming a long club-shaped flower 9-11 by 2-3.2 mm, apex broadly rounded, somewhat compressed, cleft 1/8-1/5, lobes 0.3-0.6 mm long, 0.2-0.3 mm thick (lower down 0.6-0.8 mm thick); androecium clavate, 1.5-2.5 by 0.7-1.2 mm, apex ± rounded, central column solid (Plate 1: 77); thecae 6-10, 0.2-0.3 mm long, radiating, connate, androphore thick, subcylindrical, the surface ± wrinkled-bullate, more striate basally, glabrous. Female flowers: pedicel 6 by 2.6 mm, buds 2.2 by 3 mm, cleft c. 1/10; ovary obovoid, 2 by 1.5 mm, densely pubescent, hairs 0.1 mm long, style with 2-lobed stigma 0.2-0.3 mm long. Fruits 1-4 per infructescence, ellipsoid-ovoid, 1.4 by 0.8-0.9 cm, apex apiculate for 2 mm, base broadly rounded; pericarp 0.5(-l) mm thick, blackish, finely pubescent, partly glabrescent leaving a fine brown punctation, without lenticels; seed ellipsoid; fruiting pedicel elongate, thickened towards the apex; perianth not persistent.
Home