Very large tree up to 55 m tall; bole up to 250 cm in diameter, sometimes much more, straight and cylindrical, often swollen in lower part, reaching up to 30 m to the first branches, angular or ridged at base, or with large, narrow buttresses up to 3 m high and heavy, spreading surface roots; bark c. 2 cm thick, surface grey to nearly black, deeply furrowed with rectangular scales, inner bark reddish, fibrous but brittle, exuding a sticky latex; crown heavy, rounded, heavy branches often abruptly spreading. Leaves arranged spirally, more or less in tufts at the ends of branches, simple; stipules absent; petiole 1.5–4 cm long, slender; blade elliptical to obovate, 6–15 cm × 2–6.5 cm, cuneate at base, emarginate, rounded, acute or acuminate at apex, with entire to slightly undulate margin, papery or thinly leathery, glabrous, lateral veins numerous. Flowers in fascicles of 1–4 (as a rule 2) in the leaf axils, bisexual, regular; pedicel 1.5–2.5 cm long; calyx with 2 whorls of 4 lobes 3–5 mm long, softly hairy on the overlapping parts; corolla with 2–2.5 mm long, fleshy tube and 8 lobes, each lobe with 1 minute median segment and 2 large, fleshy, imbricate lateral segments 3–3.5 mm long, creamy white; stamens 8, inserted on the corolla tube in front of the corolla lobes, free, filaments short, 8 short staminodes alternating with the stamens; ovary superior, conical, softly hairy, 8-celled, each cell with 1 ovule, style short. Fruit a large, ovoid-globose, smooth berry 8–12 cm long, yellow when ripe, containing 1–3 seeds in a yellowish pulp. Seeds broadly ellipsoid, slightly laterally compressed, (5–)6–7.5 cm long, testa thick, woody, smooth, shining and yellowish-brown in dorsal part, rough and bullate in ventral part (scar); endosperm absent. |
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