Shrub or treelet 2.5-3 m; branchlets slender, terete, first laxly appressed-pilose, soon glabrous and covered with a thin greyish cork. Leaves elliptic-oblong, shortly (1-1.5 cm) cuspidate-caudate and falcate at the apex, cuneate at the base, thinly chartaceous, ± olivaceous to brownish and little shining when dry, paler beneath, entire, glabrous the midrib finely pubescent beneath excepted, 10-16 by 4-6.5 cm; midrib impressed above, very prominent beneath, nerves 7-8 pairs, curved-ascending (the lowest pair coming from the leaf-base, the upper 3-4 pairs only anastomosing), obscure above, prominent beneath, veins transverse, reticulations little but distinctly prominent on both sides; petiole slender, ± densely appressed-pubescent, 6-10 mm. Stipules subulate, pilose, 3-4 mm, mostly early caducous. ♂ Flowers seen only in bud. ♀ Flowers: calyx-lobes 4, broadly ovate, cup-shaped, yellow, 2 mm. Stamens not exserted, with minute, cordate, empty anthers on top of cylindrical, rather thick filaments. Staminodes 2 mm. Ovary cylindrical, somewhat inflated in the middle, hairy, (beyond anthesis) 7 by 2 mm. Styles 1 mm. Fruits 1 or 2, near or on the top of a 15-20 cm long, slender rhachis markedly thickened towards its apex and densely appressed-pubescent. Capsule rather narrow-fusiform, somewhat inflated in the middle, green when fresh, ± glabrous, 5-9 by lll 4-2 cm, rather abruptly contracted at both ends, crowned by 3 thick, c. 2-3 mm long styles incurved towards each other in the dry state, each with a minute, thick, ± bilobed stigma; pedicel 1-2 by 1-2 mm. Seeds 25-30, ± ovoid, 4-5 by c. 3 mm, smooth.
Apparently common, in forests, 200-800 m, fl. fr. May, June, Sept.
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