Trees 5--15 m tall. Trunk to 40 cm d.b.h., bark gray to dark gray. Branchlets densely brown scaly. Leaves alternate; petiole 7--10 mm; leaf blade elliptic, ovate-lanceolate, or elliptic-lanceolate, 5--15 X 2.5--6 cm, leathery, abaxially densely covered with silver-gray to brownish glossy scales, adaxially glabrous and green to yellow-green when dried, base broadly cuneate to rounded, margin entire, apex acuminate, secondary veins 5--8 pairs, tertiary veins subparallel. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, racemes or panicles, 3--9-flowered, 3--5 cm. Pedicel 1--2 mm. Flowers 1.2--1.6 cm. Calyx ca. 3 X 3.5 mm, truncate to obscurely 5-toothed. Corolla tube 5--7 mm; lobes 4 or 5, lanceolate, 8--9 X 1.5--2 mm. Stamens shorter than corolla; filaments densely yellow-brown stellate pubescent. Fruit subglobose, ca. 2.5 cm in diam., irregularly rugose when mature, densely gray scaly and sparsely gold-yellow stellate pubescent, apex shortly rostrate. Seeds brownish, glabrous. Fl. Apr-May, fr. Aug-Sep.
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