Tree. Young branchlets considerably thickened at the tips, at first rufous-sericeous, soon glabrescent, growth sympodial. Leaves papyraceous to chartaceous or sometimes subcoriaceous, spirally arranged and crowded at the tips of the branch-lets, sericeous when very young eventually glabrous or almost glabrous except for appressed pubescence on the midrib, conspicuously minutely verruculose above and pellucid-punctate at certain stages of development but these characters are not seen when the leaf is young and it becomes opaque as it grows old, obovate, narrowly obovate or obovate-spathulate, 5-12 by 2½-6½ cm, rounded at the apex, cuneate at the base; nerves 8-10 pairs, domatia present in their axils, sometimes hairy; petiole sericeous, eventually sparsely appressed-pubescent, or glabrous, ½-2 cm, usually with 2 glands at or above the middle. Flowers in axillary spikes 5-8 cm long; ♂ numerous, glabrous, 1½-2 mm stalked; hermaphrodite sessile, fewer, towards the base of the spike, rhachis nearly glabrous. Bracts glabrous, filiform, 1 mm. Lower receptacle (ovary) glabrous, 1.5-2 mm long; upper receptacle glabrous, shallow-cupuliform 1 by 2 mm. Calyx-lobes broadly deltoid, glabrous, 0.8 mm long. Filaments glabrous, 1½-2 mm (probably immature); anthers ½ mm long. Disk barbate. Style glabrous, 1½ mm. Fruit glabrous, ellpsoid, 2.2-4½ by 1.2-2 cm, often beaked and stipitate, showing in cross-section a complete ring of sclerenchymatous tissue 5-6 mm broad in which 5-6 irregular masses of alveolar tissue are embedded or the latter may be more developed at the expense of the sclerenchyma which is sometimes little more than a framework.
Home
