Monoecious aromatic shrubs or trees to 20 m., the ultimate branches terete or slightly flattened, reddish to greenish-brown, tomentose or glabrescent. Leaves opposite, pergameneous, mostly appressed-strigillose and glabrescent above, stellate-pubescent and glabrescent below; blades oblong to elliptic, apically acute to long-acuminate, basally cuneate to truncate, entire, usually symmetrical, 5-25 cm. long, 3-10 cm. broad, with 7-11 lateral veins on each side, the petioles 5-10(-15) mm. long. Staminate inflorescences hermaphroditic or unisexual, of 2-4 3-to 21-flowered cymes in each axil, yellow stellate-pubescent throughout, often with one con-spicuous dichotomous branch to the peduncle, the unbranched portion to 15 mm. long, the pedicels to 3 mm. long; tepals 4-6, deltoid to somewhat hemispherical, the velum lacking; stamens (8-) 10-14. Carpellate inflorescences similar to the male, the flowers with several long-exserted, basally connate styles, the velum, if present, obscured by the tepals, conical. Aggregate fruits callose, contorted, ob-scuring the tepals, pinkish, 8-14 mm. long, 8-14 mm. broad, bursting irregularly and exposing the yellowish interior with its few tuberculate grayish seeds.
Primary and secondary rainforests, especially near rivers, and in savannahs. Forming undergrowth in dense forests at elevations of 120-1050 metres in Peru.
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