Trees, large. Bark grayish blue, smooth, exfoliating. Branchlets slightly ridged. Young leaves opposite, sessile; leaf blade ovate, glaucescent, base cordate. Mature leaves with a slightly flattened 1.5-3 cm petiole; leaf blade lanceolate, 15-30 × 1-2 cm, falcate, leathery, both surfaces glandular, secondary veins at an angle of 35°-40° from midvein and inconspicuous, intramarginal veins ca. 1 mm from margin. Inflorescences axillary, simple, umbels 1- or 7-flowered; peduncles flattened or terete. Hypanthium obconic, ca. 1 × 1.3 cm, surface with 4 ridges and rugose protuberances, glaucescent; stipe 0-5 mm; calyptra slightly flattened, with a conic tubercle in middle, shorter than calyx tube, in 2 layers with outer layer glossy and caducous. Stamens 0.8-1.3 cm, in several whorls; filaments slender; anthers elliptic. Style 7-8 mm, stout. Capsule semiglobose, 0.6-2.4 cm in diam., 4-ridged; disk broad; valves 3-5, equaling hypanthium rim or exserted. Fl. Dec-May, fr. winter.

Cultivated in Fujian, Guangxi, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Yunnan, and Zhejiang [native to SE Australia and Tasmania].