Trees up to 30 m, buttresses small or absent, bark brown, lenticelled, peeling off in thin flakes. Twigs glabrous, often lenticelled. Leaves elliptic to ovate, (8-)12-26 by 5-12(-15) cm, base rounded to subcordate, apex rounded to broadly acuminate, herbaceous, with 7-14 pairs of nerves, venation transverse, not conspicuous, both sides entirely glabrous, basal glands 2-4(-6), flat or slightly hollowed. Petiole up to 1.5(-2) cm long. Stipules linear to linguiform, 5.5-7.5 by 1.5-2.2 mm, keeled inside and often intrapetiolarly connate, glabrous, sometimes ciliolate. Racemes solitary, axillary, (3-)5-21(-33) cm long, peduncle up to 1.5 cm, some empty bracts at the base, rachis glabrous or sparsely puberulous, pedicels 1.5-5 mm long. Flowers sometimes functionally male, cream-coloured. Hypanthium 2-3 mm high, (almost) glabrous outside. Perianth differentiated, (4-)5-merous. Sepals triangular, 0.8-1.5 mm long, glabrous except sometimes apex and margin. Petals elliptic to obovate, 1-2 mm long, usually more hairy than sepals. Stamens 10-30, filaments up to 6 mm, anthers 0.8-1.5 mm long. Ovary glabrous, style up to 4.5 mm long, pistillodium in male flowers small. Fruits transversely ellipsoid to didymous, 8-11.5 by 11-15 mm, exocarp glabrous, black when ripe, mesocarp thin, juicy, endocarp glabrous inside. Seed with glabrous testa.
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A tree. It grows 30 m tall. The trunk is 25-40 cm across. It can have small buttresses. The leaves are 12-26 cm long by 5-13 cm wide. The fruit are 8-12 mm long by 5-7 mm wide. They are red when ripe.
A sub-canopy to canopy tree in dense, primary forest and the more open secondary formations, often on river banks; at elevations from sea level to 1,000 metres, occasionally ascending to 1,800 metres.
Uses Hardly ever reported by collectors. Dorn-streich 76 (E Sepik Prov.): wood used for smaller house poles, bark for making eel traps, leaves to flavour soup or cooked greens.
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The leaves are used in soups and other dishes for flavouring. They should be cooked.
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