Tree, 17-45 m, 25-65 cm Ø. Perules rather long-persistent. Leaves ovate-oblong to elliptic, rounded or even notched at both ends, coriaceous to hard-coriaceous, entire, flattish but often bullate, 2½-9½ by 1½-4½ cm, midrib with a ridge well over halfway, upper surface rather smooth with no prominent tessellation but the c. 5-7 pairs of nerves bluntly prominent, undersurface with fine-tessellate but not prominent venation; petiole 2-5 mm. Stipules oblong, early caducous, 4-9 by 2-4 mm. ♂ Flowers in ± sessile triads; perianth c. 5-6 mm long, the central flower sometimes pedi-celled and shorter. Stamens 10-12. ♀ Flowers solitary, slightly winged. Cupule usually sessile but sometimes shortly (up to 7 mm) stalked, at least halfway split; valves rather woody, sometimes unequal, with 2-3 lamellae, rather variable in size, gaping when mature 7-10 by 7-14 mm. Nut orbicular to broad-ovate, c. 4-6 mm Ø.
Mountain forest, sometimes in poor situations a shrub (Enarotali, 4 m, in boggy heath-land at 1800 m), in boggy forest (Wabag, Ialibu, Onim), on exposed summits or ridges reduced to a stiff gnarled shrub 2-5 m and sometimes major component (Bernhard at 2150 m; Normanby in stunted open Dacrydium forest at 850 m), not rare in mossy forest (Normanby at 950 m; Nettoti Mts, main constituent at 1700 m; Idenburg R. at 2150 m), 1700-2850 m, but on Normanby I. 750-850 m.A common species often abundant (Bernhard, Arfak, Wissel Lakes), dominance noted on Mt Cycloop above the Castanopsis zone, on Nettoti Mts in submossy forest, at Habbema at 2840 m, on the Kutubu-Tari track at 1950 m. ♂ Fl. mostly June-Aug., but also noted Febr., May, Oct., fr. mostly July-Sept., but also Jan.-March, flush May-Aug., also Febr.
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