Trees, up to 15 m tall, dioecious; bark gray-brown; branches and leaves glabrous. Leaves usually apically clustered; stipules caducous; petiole 4-12 cm; leaf blade ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 10-24 × 5-10 cm, thinly leathery, abaxially glaucous-gray or gray-brown when dry, base rounded or broadly cuneate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate; lateral veins 7 or 8. Male thyrses 7-25 cm, female shorter. Male flowers: sepals 5 (3 wider, 2 narrower), 3-3.5 mm; petals 5, ovate-elliptic, ca. 5 mm, white; disk glands free; stamens 20-35. Female flowers ca. 12 mm; sepals and petals as in male; disk annular; ovary hirsute; styles 3, bifid to below middle, apex densely longitudinally grooved. Capsule tomentulose and densely elevated-verrucose; mesocarp hard, woody. Seeds ellipsoidal, ca. 1.1 cm, brown, with stripes of yellowish spots, smooth, glossy. Fl. Mar-May, fr. Aug-Sep.
Moist, shady areas. Montane evergreen forests in southern China; at elevations from 400-1,400 metres.
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