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Leaves dimorphic or not; main blades 1–12 × 0.7–4 cm, narrowly elliptic to ± circular, oblong-elliptic, obovate or ovate to rotund, acute or shortly acuminate at the tip, cuneate, rounded or cordate at the base, margins recurved, usually drying red-brown above and pale olive beneath, papery, almost glabrous or pubescent (velutinous outside the Flora Zambesiaca area) on both surfaces; midrib ± flat above, prominent beneath, puberulous or pubescent on both surfaces; lateral nerves in 4–6 main pairs; tertiary nerves coarsely reticulate, slightly raised beneath; domatia hairy, often present as a small pocket or pit-shaped excavation;petiole 1–6 mm long, puberulous; stipule limbs 1–2.5 mm long, puberulous; awns mostly short, 0.5–2.5(5) mm long, puberulous.
Corolla white, cream-coloured or greenish;tube 2.5–7.5 mm long,2–3 mm wide at the top, pubescent at the top with pubescent lines extending downwards, sometimes becoming pubescent towards the base outside, glabrous inside; lobes 2.5–5 × 1.25–3 mm, shortly or distinctly acuminate, usually off-centre, or truncate or slightly emarginate, densely pubescent outside.
Inflorescences borne at naked nodes or occasionally subtended by leaves, sessile or subsessile, 1–5-flowered (or more); intermediate inflorescence branches usually absent; bract and bracteoles cupular, with 4 teeth(2 of which may sometimes be developed into leaf-like appendages).
Calyx tube entirely surrounded by the bracteolar cup, pubescent, the extreme base sometimes glabrous; limb-tube 1.5–2 mm long, scarcely widening, pubescent, often developing 1(2–3) deep longitudinal split when the flowers are open; teeth short not more than 0.5 mm long.
Deciduous or semi-deciduous shrubs or small trees, up to 8.5 m tall; young stems puberulous or shortly hairy; older stems often with many closely spaced nodes, covered with light coloured or mid-grey bark.
Placenta with 2 collateral ovules; style glabrous or somewhat hairy at the tip, up to 9 mm long; pollen presenter arms c. 2–3 mm long, erect, held between anthers.
Seeds usually 1, hemispherical (rarely 2, quarter-spherical) per locule, with a ± concave inner side and a strongly curved hilum.
Filaments 1.5–2.5 mm long; anthers 2–4 mm long, not apiculate, sometimes with a very few hairs at the tip.
Fruit orange or red, c. 7 mm in diameter, spherical, crowned by persistent calyx limb, glabrescent.
Flowers 6-merous, strongly scented but not exactly pleasant, subsessile.
