Evergreen trees to 15 m high; bole uneven with tubercles; bark greyish-yellow,; branchlets terete, rough. Leaves simple, alternate, often clustered towards the tip of branchlets, 5.5-30 x 1.5-8.5 cm, oblanceolate or elliptic-oblanceolate, apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, base acute, attenuate or cuneate, margin entire, membranous to chartaceous, scattered white furfuraceous above and beneath, often scattered puberulous on midrib beneath; stipules 3-5 mm long, lateral, lanceolate, cauducous; petiole 10-60 mm long, slender, grooved above, glabrescent or puberulous; lateral nerves 4-7 pairs, pinnate, slender, faint, intercostae reticulate, obscure. Flowers unisexual, dark crimson, in densely clustered slender racemes on mature stem. Male flowers: bracts lanceolate, linear-lanceolate or triangular, free, conduplicate, encircling the base of lateral branches; tepals 4-5, 1.5-2 x 1 mm, linear, oblong, elliptic, suborbicular or oblanceolate, glabrous or sparsely puberulous; stamens 4-8, free; anthers basifixed; pistillode clavate. Female flowers: bracts 1-1.5 mm long, lanceolate; tepals 4-5, 2.5-3 x 0.6-1.5 mm, linear, oblong or oblong-elliptic, sparsely puberulous to glabrous, ciliate; ovary superior, 2.5 x 2-3 mm, ovoid or subglobose, 3-locular, ovules 2 in each cell, 3-angled, tomentose; stigmas 3, flabellate. Fruit a capsule, 1.5-3 x 1.5-2.5 cm, subglobose, ovoid, ellipsoid or obovoid, 3 locular, thick walled, often with 6 longitudinal ribs, pink-red when ripe, brown when dry, often verrucose, pubescent, dehiscent; seeds 3, oblong, aril white.