Trees, up to 25 m tall, ca. 60 cm d.b.h. Bark red-brown or gray-brown. Branchlets gray-brown, slender, lenticellate, lenticels orbicular, fissured. Terminal buds small, gray-yellow pubescent. Leaves clustered at apex of branchlet, alternate or opposite; petiole slender, 6-15 mm; leaf blade brownish when dry, elliptic or narrowly elliptic, 6-9(-12) × 2-3(-5) cm, leathery, midrib elevated on both surfaces, lateral veins 4-7 pairs, slightly elevated on both surfaces, always curved and interconnected near leaf margin, veins slender, dense, adaxially minutely foveolate, abaxially always lax and conspicuous when dry, base cuneate, apex acuminate with an obtuse acumen, rarely acuminate or obtuse. Racemes axillary or terminal, ca. 1.5 cm, sparsely gray-yellow pubescent, 3-5-flowered. Pedicels 1.5-3 mm, 1-bracteate at base and 2-bracteolate below perianth tube; bracts lanceolate, villous; bracteoles linear. Flowers yellow. Perianth segments ovate, villous on both surfaces. Fertile stamens 9; filaments villous, those of 3rd whorl 2-glandular at base. Staminodes sagittate. Ovary ovoid, glabrous. Fruits ellipsoid, 2.5-4 × 2-2.5 cm, smooth, shiny, rounded at both ends, black-brown when mature; fruiting pedicels 5-10 × 3-4 mm. Fl. Jul, fr. Sep-Nov.

● Dense forests along streamsides in valleys. SW Hainan (Jianfeng Ling).