Large tree, (10-)20-45 m, bole columnar, angular and with shallow to rather deep grooves, up to 60 cm ø, buttresses, if any, short, rarely up to 1.5 m; crown high inserted, irregular. Bark grey to brown, rather smooth, with irregular shallow fissures and numerous lenticels, 12-16 cm thick, outer part in cross-section red, inner one yellowish white, with a peculiar aromatic agreeable smell (of cumarine?) and very bitter taste as they are also found in the leaves. Tip of branchlets, inflorescences, petioles and young blades covered with a rather coarse woolly rusty and detersile tomentum of flattish to obliquely erect star-shaped or fascicled hairs, and with minor scales, which go early. Leaves elliptic, or ovate-, rarely oblong-elliptic, apex generally shortly subacutely acuminate, base broadly attenuate to rounded, thin-coriaceous, at maturity glabrous and shining above, and dull yellowish-greenish-greyish to almost bluish (as in Lauraceae and Myristicaceae) beneath, still covered there with sparse flattish to obliquely erect star-shaped or fascicled hairs especially along midrib and nerves, and besides over the whole undersurface with a skin-like layer of small, thin, ± confluent, finally greyish-silvery scales (these with a minute or scarcely recognizable darker centre), which lasts for a while, finally almost glabrous even under a lens, (7-)10-20(-25) by (3-)5-11 cm, midrib and 6-10(-12) pairs of rather straight robust nerves ± sunken above, distinctly raised beneath, reticulation of veinlets dense, fine and generally more visibly raised on both faces of fully mature leaves; petiole (1.2-) 2-4 cm. Male inflorescences ± pyramidal in circumference, (2-)4-6 cm, consisting of spikes with spaced glomeruli or short panicles. Petals light green, at least finally glabrous, c. 1.5 mm. Female inflorescences in 2-5(-8)-flowered cymes. Pedicel stout, 2-5 mm, slightly elongated in fruit. Ovary obconical, whether or not covered initially with fine stellate appressed hairs, base included by the dorsally pubescent sepals (c. 2 mm). Drupe narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid, glabrous, variable in size, 2.5-4.5 by 2-2.5 cm; fleshy exocarp first lemon yellow to reddish orange, finally purplish-blackish especially when dry, of a bitter taste; stony endocarp acuminate, with 2-3 longitudinal grooves and oblongish to subquadrangular markings between; albumen white, slimy, becoming bluish when cut.
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Trees 6-25 m tall. Bark gray; young parts with rust-colored stellate scales or hairy. Petiole 2-3.5 cm; leaf blade abaxially light green, adaxially dark green, elliptic or oblong, 10-19 × 4-9 cm, midvein abaxially prominent, adaxially minutely concave, lateral veins 6-14 pairs, prominent abaxially, anastomosing near margin, reticulate veins slightly conspicuous, slender, base rounded or obtuse, apex acuminate. Staminate flowers in large axillary panicles 4-10 cm, densely tomentose; bracts ovate, ca. 1 mm; sepals ovate, 0.5-0.8 mm, ciliate; petals green, ovate-elliptic, 1.5-1.8 mm, glabrous, apex incurved; filaments white; anthers yellow, oblong, ca. 0.8 mm; ovary reduced, conical. Pistillate flowers in short axillary racemes 1-2 cm, densely tomentose; bracts lanceolate, 4-7 mm; pedicels 3-4 mm, stout; sepals triangular, ca. 3 mm, outside with dense scales, inside glabrous, margin ciliate; ovary terete; stigma discoid. Drupe ellipsoid-ovoid, 3-4 cm, 1.5-2 cm in diam., with persistent stig-ma and persistent calyx. Fl. Feb-Apr, fr. Jun-Nov.
Primary lowland and montane rainforest, also oak forest, scattered, not rare in Java, mainly on constantly wet, even swampy places, found in Borneo in heath forest up to 560 m, in Java also on volcanic sand or loam, up to 1750 m.
Uses. Timber of large size, whitish, a little lustrous, with a smell of cumarine, soft, not durable, locally used for house building in positions under the roof. For descriptions of the wood of P. latifolia cf. MOLL & JANSSONIUS Mikr. 2 1908 248 f. 108 ; the description of the wood of P. excelsa ( MOLL & JANSSONIUS Mikr. 2 1908 253 ) also refers here, as the cited KOORDERS coll. no. actually belongs to P. latifolia.
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