Shrub or small slender to large tree, 2-25 m high, lacking buttresses. Twigs sparsely pubescent. Bracts sometimes united to form a bilobed, persistent cup around stem. Leaves with petiole (0.3-)0.5-1(-1.3) cm and blade chartaceous to subcoriaceous, either broadly elliptic, 2.5-4 by 1.5-2.5 cm, both base and apex rounded, or elliptic to ovate, (3.5-)5-10(-12.5) by (2.2-)3.5-4(-4.5) cm, the base cuneate to rounded and the apex obtuse or acute, or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 3.5-7.7 by 1.3-3 cm, the base attenuate or rounded and the apex narrowly acute or acuminate; lower surface often bearing minute ± spherical pale or reddish resinous glands and rarely sparse indumentum; margin crenulate to subentire; secondary veins in 8-10(-12) pairs, quite well spaced. Stipules triangular, 2-5 mm long, usually varnished. Inflorescence axillary or occasionally terminal or false-terminal; when axillary, median axes 3-5.5(-7.5) cm long by c. 1 mm diameter, and few-flowered (15 or more flowers), often slender and lax, or denser when axes shorter; when false-terminal, median axes bearing 1-2(-4) pairs of major lateral branches and the apical bud aborted, dormant or vegetative. Flowers bisexual and male, 4.5-7 mm diameter; 4-5-merous (except for gynoecium); almost sessile to pedicellate, the pedicel up to 4 mm long; hypanthium and outside of calyx often sparsely pubescent; calyx lobes 1.8-2.5 by 1-2 mm; petals with basal part 0.6-1.1 mm long, teeth 0.3-0.5 mm long; filaments 1-2 mm long, anthers 0.4-0.6 mm long, apiculate; disc lobes globose, fleshy, 0.5-0.7 mm diameter; ovary 2(-3)-carpellate, in bisexual flowers superior to slightly embedded in hypanthium, ± spherical, 0.8-1.2 by 1-1.5 mm, densely pubescent or rarely glabrous; styles 0.5-1.2 mm long; ovules 2 per locule; ovary in male flowers 0.7 by 1 mm, styles c. 0.3(-0.5) mm long. Fruits ovoid-ellipsoid and pointed at apex or rarely ± spherical, the apex rounded, 1.1-1.4 by 0.7-0.9(-1.1) cm, with bases of styles often persistent; epicarp warty.
In primary and regrowth montane forest, often in the understorey, and in scrub on ridge crests at the highest altitudes; quite common in parts of the Central Highlands and the Owen Stanley Mts, from 2000-3300 m, occasionally as low as 1100 m, and from (570-)800-2000 m in Irian Jaya.
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