Tree to 15 m tall and 10 cm d.b.h., the bark pale gray, smooth, with a faint sweetish odor when cut, the branches strongly ascending; twigs terete with a large pith, lepidote. Leaves simple, opposite, elliptic to narrowly obovate, acute to obtuse, basally cuneate, 21-38 cm long and 6.5-13.3 cm wide, regularly lepidote above and beneath with 2 distinct sizes of scales, somewhat lepidote-glandular at the base of the blade, drying olive with the veins tan, midvein conspicuously raised beneath; petiole 1.2-6 cm long. Inflorescence unknown. Flowers with the calyx (in fruit) spathaceous, the apex often somewhat split, 2.5-3 cm long and 0.9-1.9 cm wide, densely lepidote, drying gray, conspicu-ously 5-striate with slightly raised lines; corolla, stamens and pistil unknown. Capsule subterete, dehiscing perpendicularly to the septum, 12-25 cm long and 2-2.8 cm wide, the valves coriaceous, densely lepidote, drying gray, the calyx persistent; seeds thin, bialate, 1.1-1.5 cm long and 1.9-2.5 cm wide, the wings short, thin, basally membranaceous at the extreme tip.
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