Trees to 30 m tall; trunk to 70 cm d.b.h.; bark brownish purple, smooth, peeling in thin flakes. Leaves opposite, decussate, held with abaxial surface always uppermost; petiole 2-5 (-10) mm, usually rather indistinct, rotation not continuing along internode; blade dark green and shining abaxially, elliptic or broadly lanceolate, 8-18 × 2.2-5 cm, leathery, stomatal lines present on abaxial surface only, base cuneate, apex abruptly acuminate. Bracts deciduous. Pollen cones axillary, in clusters of 3-6, sessile, elongate-cylindric, 1.5-6.5 cm × ca. 4 cm; microsporophylls triangular. Seed-bearing structures axillary; peduncle scaly, not enlarged, 2-2.8 cm at seed maturity; ovules 1 or 2(or 3), sessile in axils of subterminal bracts, only 1 ovule maturing. Receptacle absent. Epimatium green, turning bluish purple when ripe. Seed globose, 1.5-1.8 cm in diam. Pollination Mar-Apr, seed maturity Oct-Nov. 2n = 26*.
Occurs sparsely in primary and slightly disturbed evergreen rain forests, most often on limestone formations; at elevations from 200-1,200 metres, usually mixed with Madhuca pasquieri, Vatica odorata and Quercus bambusaefolia.
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