Shrub or mostly tree 5-8 m; bark yellowish-grey, peeling-off in plates; branches usually pale grey, glabrous except the young slender cinereous-pubescent innovations. Leaves oblong to oblong-elliptic, +-abruptly acuminate, base acute to subrotundate, entire or obscurely crenulate, membranous or mostly chartaceous (rarely subcoriaceous), both surfaces quite glabrous, or sometimes the midrib and the nerves minutely appressed-pilose beneath, 7-15(-17) by (3.5-)4-7(-10) cm; green to brownish and slightly shining when dry, nerves (4-)5-7(-8) pairs, prominent, curved, anastomosing, rather distant from each other, veins mostly little reticulate; petiole ± pubescent, 0.6-1 cm. Stipules linear or acicular, densely pubescent, 3-4 mm, early caducous. Staminate and pistillate racemes in the uppermost axil (seemingly terminal) or sometimes in the lower axils, spike-like, simple or panicled, many-flowered, pubescent by appressed, pale hairs, 10-20(-30) cm. Flowers greenish. Calyx-lobes membranous, glabrous or minutely pilose outside, c. 2.5 mm. ♂ Flowers: stamens 8 (-10); filaments c. 3 mm; staminodes 1-1.5 mm. ♀ Flowers: calyx-lobes 2 mm. Ovary oblong-elliptic, densely yellowish-tomentose; ovules 2-4. Capsule oblong-subglobose, with 3 rounded angles, attenuate at apex and base, 1-1.5 cm long, densely covered with grey to yellowish hairs when dry, said to be purpurascent or rich velvety red when fresh; pedicel c. 2 mm. Seeds 1-2 (sometimes more), ellipsoid, c. 5 mm, with fleshy lemon-yellowish aril.
Uses. Wood pale or yellowish-white, quite hard, odourless and tasteless, used in N. Celebes for house-construction.