Shrub, or generally tree, (3-)6-15(-25) m, bole straight, sometimes fluted, up to 55 cm Ø; bark green-grey to light brown, smooth, shed in irregular soft flakes; blaze yellow with orange streaks. Leaves oblong to oblong-ovate, apex shortly attenuate, mostly blunt, rarely acutish, base broadly cuneate to rounded, thin-coriaceous, glabrous, showing numerous minute pel-lucid points against strong light, (15-)20-30 by 7-11 (-16) cm, in suckers or young shoots up to 36 by 17 cm, entire, midrib strongly obtusely prominent beneath, nerves (8-)10-12 cuved-ascendent pairs faintly looping before the edge, veins obliquely transverse, reticulation rather indistinct; petiole 1.5-2 cm. Panicles composed of short lateral cymes, laxly many-flowered, 1-3 in foliate or already defoliate axils, or from the wood of old branches and/or trunk, 7-20 cm, lower branches up to 9 cm, upper ones 2-4 cm; peduncle 2-5 cm, with a basal swelling, glabrous or sparsely appressedly and coarsely hairy, slender in anthesis, stout (2 mm Ø) in fruiting stage as is the rachis. Pedicels slender and 4-6 mm in anthesis, stoutish and c. 1 cm in fruit. Sepals suborbicular, connate in the lower half, lobes 1-1.5 mm. Petals ovate-oblong, a little fleshy, dull cream or yellow to purplish, 3-4 by 1.5 mm, glabrous outside, ± densely yellowish-villous inside. Stamens 2-3 mm; filaments c. 0.7 mm; connective hairy, exceeding the oblong anther cells (1.5 mm) by c. 0.8 mm. Ovary 2.5 mm. Drupe pendulous, oblongoid to ellipsoid, rarely ovoid-oblongoid, slightly laterally or subquadrangularly compressed, (4-)6-10 by (2-)3-6 cm, exocarp coriaceous, whitish or yellow to purplish when fresh and already fully ripe, becoming purplish to blackish in older stages or when dry, smooth, thin, early dis-soluted; endocarp remaining woody and massive in the inner part (1-2 mm), becoming corky or spongious and irregularly longitudinally grooved and/or lacunose-excavated in the outer part (3-5 mm) when exposed to sea-water. Seed starchy, 4-6 by 2-2.5 cm.
Generally coastal and lowland partly swampy rain-forest, at 3-30 m (on Japen I. said to occur at 700 m), on the inland edge of mangrove, on sandy or coral beaches, also on volcanic soil, in moist places, often near streams or in freshwater swamp forest, locally not rare, though apparently scattered in general. Fl. fr. Jan.-Dec.
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