A tree that grows to a height of 35m with a girth of 55cm, producing wood of commercial value. Bark is smooth and yellowish-brown. Stems are yellowish, pubescent at the apex, lenticelled, terete, and exuding a milky latex after incision. Leaves are simple, opposite, and exstipulate. Petiole is 1cm long and channeled above. Blade is oblong, 4cm × 4.5cm – 8cm × 3.3cm – 11.4cm × 4cm, papery, velvety below, and showing 8–15 pairs of secondary nerves. Inflorescences are 5cm-long cymes which are pubescent. Flowers are smelly and white–pink; calyx consists of five sepals which are ovate and 2–5mm long; corolla tube is 5–6.5mm long and produce five contorted lobes which are oblong and 1–2cm long. Fruits are pairs of 15–30cm × 1–2cm follicles which are connate, sublinear, and contain several fusiform hairy seeds.

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Used to stop dysentery (seed extract and latex)

Christophe Wiart. Medicinal Plants of Asia and the Pacific, P:258-259, CRC Press, June 2006.