Trees or shrubs, 3-6(-10) m tall. Bark gray, usually with vertical fissures. Stipules 4-8 cm. Petiole 1.5-3 cm, usually tinged reddish; leaf blade elliptic-oblong to sublanceolate, 7-16 × 3-6 cm, abaxial midvein reddish, base broadly cuneate, apex acute to apiculate. Inflorescences 2-flowered cymes; peduncle 0.7-10 mm. Flowers sessile. Calyx lobes ovate, concave, 1-1.4 cm, apex acute. Petals lanceolate, flat, 6-8 mm, membranaceous, glabrous, white. Stamens mostly 12, 4 adnate to base of petals, 8 adnate to sepals, 6-7.5 mm; anthers nearly sessile, apex apiculate. Ovary largely enclosed by disk, free part 1.5-2.5 mm; style ca. 1 mm. Fruit ca. 2.5 × 1.5 cm, apical half narrower. Hypocotyl cylindric-clavate, ca. 3.8 × 1.2 cm, ± blunt before falling. Fl. and fr. all year.
Usually a small tree or large shrub with spreading crown supported by stilt roots descending from branches. Leaves with 1.5-2.5 (-3) cm long, reddish tinged petioles; lamina elliptic-oblong to ± lanceolate-ovate, 7-15 (-18) cm long, 3-6 (-8) cm broad, cuneate at the base, entire, apiculate-acute and shortly mucronate at the tips, glabrous, dark-green above, pale-green and brownish-black dotted on lower side; stipules oblong-lanceolate, 4-8 cm long. Peduncles 2-flowered, shorter than the petioles, borne in axils of fallen leaf scars. Flowers sessile, in pairs, yellow; bracteoles cup-shaped, crenulate, fleshy, Hypanthium short. Calyx-lobes ovate to ovate-oblong, 10-14 mm long, brownish-yellow to reddish, acute, keeled. Petals white, linear to oblong-lanceolate, 8-11 mm long, thin, glabrous. Stamens nearly sessile, anthers 6-8 mm long, apiculateacute. Ovary partly inferior, superior free upper part bluntly conical; style c. 1 mm long, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit ovoid-obpyriform, 2-2.5 cm long, c. 1.5 cm in diameter, rugose. Hypocotyl cylindrical, rugose, up to 40 cm long, c.1.2 cm broad, dull-green to ± purplish.
