Tree 4-20 m. Twigs 2-3(-4) mm diameter, grey-brown, later on pale yellowish or whitish brown, contrasting with the dark colour of the dry petioles, early glabrescent, hairs 0.1 mm long; bark striate, not flaking; lenticels small, at first distinct. Leaves chartaceous, (elliptic-)oblong, 7-16 by 2.5-6 cm, base attenuate, apex acute-acuminate, upper surface glabrous, drying dull, olivaceous greenish, lower surface bright rusty or chocolate, much contrasting with the upper surface, glabrous; dots absent; midrib raised above, glabrous; nerves 8-11 (-15) pairs, slender, raised above, lines of interarching and venation indistinct at both surfaces; petiole 6-12 by 1.5-2.5 mm, drying blackish brown; leaf bud 7-10 by 2-3 mm, with dense grey-rusty hairs 0.2 mm long, the indumentum early shed in the form of small crust-like pieces. Inflorescences with sparse stellate hairs 0.2-0.3 mm long, ± glabrescent; in male: 2 or 3 times branched, 3-6 by 1.5-4 cm, peduncle 0.5-1 cm long, few-flowered, the flowers in clusters of 3-8; in female (according to infructescences): 1.5-4 cm long; bracts not seen, caducous; flowers glabrous, perianth 3-lobed, pedicel articulated. Male flowers: pedicel 1-1.5 mm long, slightly tapering; buds globose to broadly obovoid, 1-1.7 mm diameter, base ± rounded, coriaceous, not collapsing on drying, cleft nearly 1/2, lobes towards base to 0.5 mm thick; androecium (including androphore) ± obovoid, 1 by 1 mm, triangular in cross section (Plate 3: 73); thecae 12 or 14, largely free, 0.5 mm long, apex acutish, at base attached to a short column continuous with tapering androphore 0.5 mm long. Female flowers: not seen. Fruits 1-4 per infructescence, ellipsoid, 1.8-2.7 by 1.4-1.9 cm, glabrous, drying (dark) brown, hardly lenticellate, pericarp 2-3 mm thick; fruiting pedicel 2-5 mm long; perianth not persistent.
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