Trees, 6-10 m tall. Bark gray or black-gray. One-year-old branchlets gray or gray-brown, terete, irregularly striate, densely lenticellate, glabrous; current year branchlets red-brown, ± angled, striate. Terminal buds small, ca. 1.5 mm; bud scales densely rusty pubescent. Leaves alternate; petiole 0.8-1.5 cm, plano-convex, glabrous; leaf blade yellowish brown on both surfaces when dry, elliptic or ovate-elliptic to oblong, 6-11 × 2-5 cm, subleathery, glabrous on both surfaces, midrib and lateral veins elevated abaxially, impressed adaxially, lateral veins 4-6 pairs, arcuate, evanescent near leaf margin, transverse veins conspicuous abaxially, inconspicuous adaxially, connected by reticulate veinlets, base broadly cuneate or subrounded, always unequal on sides, margin revolute and undulate, apex shortly acuminate, always oblique. Panicle axillary, 1.5-4 cm, many flowered, conspicuously with small leaves so whole inflorescence like a floral branchlet; rachis red-brown, ± compressed, glabrous; bracteoles minute, subulate, ca. 1.5 mm, ciliate, caducous. Pedicels 1-2 mm, glabrous. Flowers green, small, ca. 2 × 2.5 mm. Perianth glabrous outside, pubescent inside and on margin; perianth tube obconical or broadly campanulate, up to 1.5 mm; perianth lobes 4(or 5), broadly triangular, 0.5-1.5 mm, obtuse. Fertile stamens 4(or 5), all exserted, ca. 1.5 mm, in 2 whorls, outer 2 each with 2 orbicular-reniform glands; filaments short, pubescent; anthers almost as long as filament, ovoid-deltoid, 2-celled or sometimes fused into 1 cell; cells all introrse. Staminodes 4, opposite to fertile stamens, linear, densely villous, arched and enveloping ovary when in bud. Ovary ovoid-conical, glabrous; style filiform, ca. 1.2 mm; stigma small. Fruit green when immature but red-brown when dry, globose, up to 5 cm in diam., smooth, glabrous, rounded and conspicuously apiculate at apex. Fl. and fr. Sep-Oct.
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