A small to medium-sized tree, (4—)8—12(—25) m tall; trunk moderately straight to crooked; bark thick, made up of many papery layers that split and peel, rough and shaggy on large trunks; crown narrow and open, or fairly dense, dull green or slightly yellowish-green; twigs pendulous, densely hairy when young. Leaves alternate, scattered, glabrescent; petiole compressed, 4—10 mm x 1.5—2.4 mm; blade lanceolate to oblanceolate, 5—9 cm x 0.6—2.4 cm, mostly 4—6 times longer than wide, straight or oblique, rarely slightly falcate, dull green, coriaceous, stiff, base narrowly attenuate, margin entire, apex acute or obtuse, sometimes apiculate, main veins 5, rarely 3 or 7, prominent, parallel from base to tip, reticulation indistinct, oil glands usually obscure. Inflorescence a many-flowered, terminal or sometimes upper-axillary, dense to moderately open spike, often 2—4 together, 4—8.5 cm x 2.5—3.5 cm; rachis 1—1.8 mm wide, glabrous to hairy; flowers in triads, usually white or creamy white, rarely greenish or reddish; calyx tubular, 3—4 mm long; tube subcylindrical, 2—2.5 mm long, persistent, with 4 semi-circular lobes, 1—1.8 mm long, margins hyaline; petals 5, obovate-spatulate, deeply concave, 3—3.5 mm x 2—2.5 mm, with a short claw, white or red; stamens in 5 bundles of 6—9 each, conspicuous, 11—20 mm long, anthers 0.6—0.8 mm long, claw 1.5—2 mm long. Fruit a broadly cylindrical, thick-walled capsule, 3.5—4 mm x 4—5 mm, grey-brown, persistent; orifice 2.5—4 mm in diameter. Seed tapering from the dorsal end, about 1.0 mm x 0.3 mm, pale-brown. |
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