Tree to 7 m high; bark rough, dark grey; new stems with rings of protective cataphylls at the base, caducous and leaving distinctive lip-like scars; indumentum of mainly erect, uniseriate, clear, fairly rigid basal cells topped by a number of globular cells increasing in size towards the apex, all plant parts glabrescent. Leaves appearing whorled at ends of branchlets; lamina narrowly obovate, 95–110 mm long, 20–40 mm wide, glossy dark green above, undersurface paler, base cuneate, apex with drip tip; venation prominently reticulate with >11 pairs of lateral secondary veins; petiole to 8 mm long. Inflorescences terminal, solitary or up to 5 flowers in an umbel, each with a sturdy peduncle 16–20 mm long. Flowers with floral parts in 5s regularly placed around the pistil; involucre present, caducous. Sepals free, narrowly triangular, c. 9 mm long, c. 2 mm wide (base), petaloid, strongly recurved, margin densely hairy. Petals narrowly obovate, spreading from the base but thickened at throat margins, cream, c. 23 mm long (18 mm long plus 5 mm recurving at apex), apex acute, c. 5 mm recurved salverform. Male flowers with ovoid exserted anthers c. 3 mm long, with a slight mucro, golden yellow; filaments flared in the lower half and joined at the sinus in the lower quarter, angular in top half and then flattened out. Pistil slender; stigma slightly knobby; ovary similar size to slender style, slender, densely hairy, not stipitate, basal nectary present; completely trilocular. Female flowers not seen, described in Cooper (1956) as ‘plump ovary 7 mm long and 5 mm broad, stamens 7.5 mm long and sagittate, probably abortive, anthers 1.5 mm long’. Ovules inserted in two rows in each loculus. Fruits dehiscent, trivalved, woody capsules, globular, 17–25 mm diam., orange, eventually black, external surface with transverse ridging, inner surface light yellow. Seeds almost hemispherical, 3–4 mm long, red-brown, minutely pitted, sticky, cohering.
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