An evergreen, small to medium-sized tree, up to 15 m tall, with short and straight trunk, up to 20 cm in diameter. Bark grey, smooth, 4-6 mm thick, exuding a yellow gum-resin. Leaves opposite, leathery, elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 10-25 cm x 3-10 cm, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, shortly stalked. Flowers in clusters or solitary in the axils of fallen leaves, 4-merous, pale yellow and fragrant, unisexual or bisexual; male flowers somewhat smaller than female and bisexuals; sepals leathery, orbicular, 4-6 mm long, persistent; petals ovate, 6-7 mm long; stamens numerous and arranged on an elevated receptacle in male flowers, less numerous and reduced in female flowers; ovary superior, 4-loculed, with sessile stigma. Fruit a globose berry, 2-3 cm in diameter, smooth, with recurved sepals at the base and crowned by the persistent stigma, 1-4 seeded. Seeds 15-20 mm long, surrounded by a pulpy aril. |
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