Shrub up to 7 m tall. Branchlets angular, ± laterally flattened under the nodes. Stipules present, caducous (only scars seen). Leaves chartaceous, greyish green above, pale brownish beneath, elliptic-lanceolate, 20-23 by 6-7.5 cm; base cuneate; apex acuminate; margin entire; midrib elevated on both surfaces; nerves 10-14 pairs, elevated on both surfaces, divaricate, or slightly obliquely spreading towards near the margin, archingly connected, to c. 3-5 mm from the edge; veins loosely reticulate, slightly elevated on both surfaces. Cymes (very young) probably few-flowered; peduncle 10-12 mm. Rather young flower. Sepals triangular, pale green. Petals broad-ovate or subrotundate, 2.5-3 by 2.5 mm, yellow, in the dry state dark-brown or with dark-brown pigments especially at the upper 2/3. Disk fleshy, cushion-shaped, rounded-quadrangular, c. 2.5 mm across, the angles alternate with the petals. Stamens c. 1 mm long, inserted on the disk towards the margin at the angles; filaments filiform; anthers suborbi-cular, c. 2/5 mm long, cells spreading at the lower part but not free from the consequently triangular connective, latrorse. Pistil partly immersed, the free part above the disk resembling a ± 4-pointed pyramidal star; style and stigma obscure. Ovules c. 10 in each cell, arranged in 2 rows, ascending, apotropous-anatropous. Fruits dark red when ripe, oblong, 6.5 by 3 cm, tetragonal on cross-section, opening with 4 woody valves 7-9 mm thick, the septa rupturing in dehiscence, leaving a free central column; pedicel in fruit c. 1 cm. Seeds ellipsoid, 11 by 6 mm, enveloped by a fleshy aril except the uppermost part on one side; testa horny; endosperm copious.
Primary rain-forest, flat country, clay soil, temporarily inundated, scarce, 10 m.
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