Trees up to 35 m, sometimes buttressed, bark usually smooth, brown or grey, strongly smelling, sometimes (var. densa, stipulacea, alticola) shrubs. Twigs more or less densely hairy, more or less glabrate with age. Leaves elliptic to oblong or ovate to lanceolate, 3-25 by 1.5-13 cm, base acute to subcordate, apex acute to acuminate, herbaceous to coriaceous, with 5-16 pairs of nerves, sparsely to densely pubescent when young, indumentum rapidly disappearing or persistent, basal glands usually 2, flat or slighdy to distinctly hollowed, Petiole (0.2-)0.5-1.5(-2) cm. Stipules variable in shape and size, free, sometimes with conspicuous glands outside, sometimes rather persistent. Racemes in axils of extant or fallen leaves, usually fascicled but sometimes solitary, sometimes truly compound, 0.5-6(-9) cm long, peduncle short, rachis (densely) pubescent, pedicels 0-6 mm long, pubescent. Flowers fragrant. Hypanthium 1-3 mm high, pubescent outside. Perianth segments 5-11, usually subequal, sometimes recognizable as sepals and petals, 0.5-1 mm long. Stamens 10-50(-60), filaments up to 7 mm, often hairy at base, anthers 0.2-1 mm long. Ovary densely hairy, style up to 5.5 mm, hairy at base. Fruits globular (not in Malesia) or subglobular to transversely ellipsoid or didymous, 5-11.5 by 7-17 mm, more or less hairy, from green turning white, red, and ultimately purple or black, the endocarp glabrous or hairy inside. Seed with hairy or glabrous testa.
A mid-canopy tree in mixed dipterocarp, keranga, sub-montane and montane evergreen and humid forests; usually on hillsides and ridges, but also along rivers and streams; on sandy soils; at elevations from 200-3,000 metres.
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