Shrubs or small trees , 1-4(-8) m, to 15 cm diam. at base. Stems unbranched or sparsely short-branched distally, slender, pubescent, becoming glabrous. Bark gray to dark reddish brown; lenticels numerous, gray. Leaves: petiole 2-7 cm, densely pubescent, becoming ± glabrous. Leaf blade lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 5-20 × 3.5-6 cm, leathery, base acute, margins narrowly revolute, apex acute to acuminate; surfaces silky-pubescent when young, becoming glabrous and glossy adaxially. Inflorescences: staminate catkins cylindric in bud, lax and outward curving at anthesis, 2-6 × 1-1.5 cm; pistillate stiffly erect, 1-3 × 1 cm. Staminate flowers: stamens (3-)10-12(-15); filaments short; anthers basifixed, broadly oblong, 4-sporangiate, 2-locular at anthesis, dehiscing longitudinally. Pistillate flowers: sepals (3-)4(-8), irregularly inserted, unequal; ovary elliptic, ca. 2 mm, finely pubescent; style 4-5 mm; stigma exserted, often recurved or twisted, reddish. Drupes erect, green, becoming chestnut brown, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, often compressed on drying, 1-2.5 cm, glabrous, base and apex blunt, apex with conspicuous dark stylar scar, vascular bundles toughening the thin flesh; endocarp brown, bony, surface rough-reticulate. Seeds 1, compressed; seed coat membranous, hilum blackish, elongate; endosperm thin, starchy; embryo large, straight; cotyledons ovoid, slightly fleshy. 2 n = 32.
Borders of swamps and wet ground, also on muddy saline shores. Open or forested swamps, wet thickets, roadside ditches, saw-grass-palmetto marshes, estuarine tidal shores.
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