Trees 7-15 m tall, the branchlets glabrous, the wood hard, the twiglets smooth, glabrous, the nodes well spaced, the pairs of scars spirally disposed. Leaves lanceolate, 9-25 cm long, 5.0-9.5 cm wide, deltoid or obtuse toward the apex, acuminate, the acumen to 1.5 cm long, falcate toward the apex, basally cuneate, often slightly inequilateral, the costa prominulous to subplane above, prominent beneath, often with a ridge, the lateral veins 8-15, prominulous, at first arising strictly, then arcuate toward the margin, with a strongly undulate submarginal vein ca. 0.2-1.2 cm in from the margin, the intervenal areas lightly reticulate, the margin slightly revolute, strongly coriaceous, shiny, smooth, slightly discolorous, often drying brown, glabrous; petioles woody, rigid, to 2.5 cm long, to 0.35 cm wide, slightly turgid; stipules persistent, conspicuously connate, collarlike, rigid, strongly appressed to the stem, to 0.4 cm long, conspicuously truncate. Male inflorescences terminal, glabrous, spikelike, to 23 cm long, to 1 cm wide; pedun-eles 1.5-3.0 cm long, the rachis contorted, the flowers in sessile, well spaced clusters, 2-4 per cluster, occasionally solitary. Female inflorescences terminal, solitary flowers on rigidly lignose pedicels, these slightly flexuous, black, gla-brous, to 2.5 cm long, angular and twisted, ca. 0.2 cm wide, slightly expanded at the apex, the basal bract urceolate, stipule-like, ca. 0.4 cm long, 0.2 cm wide, glabrous. Male flowers sessile; hypanthium scarcely measurable, the calycine cup bowl shaped, to 1.5 mm long, glabrous, coriaceous but somewhat thin walled, truncate, the teeth absent, eglandular within; corolla white, green, pink or lav-ender outside, often purplish pink within, to 8 mm long, the tube longer than the lobes, the lobes 4(-5) triangular oblong, obtuse or subacute, coriaceous, glabrous outside, densely pubescent within. Female flowers with the hypanthium oblong, to 1.5 cm long, ca. 0.8 cm wide, obtuse toward the base, hard, black, constricted toward the apex, the calycine cup urceolate, glabrous, the lobes absent or with the margin slightly erosulose or the lobes to 0.2 mm long; corolla with the tube yellow or white, short, carnose. Fruits on rigid, deflexed, woody, smooth pedi-cels, to 7.5 cm long, to 0.35 cm wide, black brown when dry, the capsule purple to brown in the living state, oblong, to 7 cm long, to 5 cm wide, round in cross section, generally resembling a small squash, smooth, glossy, black brown when dry, with a round, craterlike depression at the apex, to 1 cm in diam., ca. 2 mm wide, the wall lignose, to 1.5 mm thick; seeds many in a jellylike pulp.
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