Tree or shrub, 3-12 m. Twigs 2.5-4 mm diameter, sometimes grey-brown and contrasting with the blackish colour of the dry petioles, early glabrescent, hairs rusty to grey-brown, 0.1-0.2 mm; bark finely striate, not tending to crack or flake; lenticels conspicuous or not. Leaves membranous, elliptic-oblong to oblong(-lanceolate), 13-37 by 4.5-11 cm, base attenuate, apex acute-acuminate; upper surface glabrous, drying dark brown or blackish, lower surface glabrous; dots absent; midrib flat above, glabrous; nerves 11-18 pairs, ± flat above, lines of interarching not particularly distinct; venation lax, faint on both surfaces; petiole 7-20 by 2-3.5 mm; leaf bud 7-12 by 2-2.5 mm, with dense pale-rusty hairs 0.1-0.2 mm long. Inflorescences subglabrescent, hairs ± sparse, 0.1-0.2 mm long; in male: lax, 10-20 by 5-8 cm with few side-branches, 2 or 3 times branched, not densely flowered, peduncle 3-13 cm long, with several bract scars, or branched from the base; in female elongate, slightly branched, almost spike-like, 5-10 cm long; bracts oblong-lanceolate, 3-8 mm long, acute, with hairs 0.1-0.3 mm especially at the margins, caducous; flowers (male) in loose clusters of 2-6, glabrous, perianth 2-lobed, pedicel not articulated. Male flowers: pedicel slender, 1-1.5 mm long; buds broadly obovoid-subglobose, 1.5-1.7 mm diameter, apex broadly rounded or somewhat depressed, base subattenuate, cleft c. 1/4, lobes thick-fleshy, 0.3-0.4 mm thick, shrinking, not collapsing on drying; androecium broadly obovoid, 0.8 by 0.6-0.7 mm, apex ± rounded, subcircular in cross section; anthers 3 or 4 or 6-8 (or with 6-8 thecae?), completely sessile at apex of the androecium, 0.4 mm long, connectives broad, ± triangular, with narrow thecae (Plate 3: 62); column broad, solid, apical hollow absent or inconspicuous; androphore broad, tapering to below, 0.4 mm long. Female flowers: buds obovoid, 2-2.5 mm long, cleft c. 1/4, ovary subglobose, 1.5 mm diameter, glabrous, stigma lobes minute. Fruits (immature) 4-10 per spike-like infructescence, ellipsoid, 2.2 by 1.8 cm, glabrous, drying blackish, not tubercled; pericarp 2 mm thick; fruiting pedicel 3-4 mm long; perianth persistent under immature fruits.
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