Evergreen trees or shrubs up to 10 m high with a smooth, mottled grey bark, the juvenile parts and inflorescences puberulous. Branches slender, terete, brown. Leaves alternate, widely spaced, elliptic, 5-9 cm long, 2-4 cm broad, base cuneate, apex acuminate, margin serrate, the teeth gland-tipped, soft, dark glossy green, paler below; petiole short, stipules small, caducous. Inflorescences axillary, short, sub-corymbose, several-1-flowered; peduncle and pedicels slender, bracts minute. Flowers sweetly scented, small; buds conical, reddish. Sepals ovate, 2 mm, persistent. Petals oblong-elliptic, c. 7 mm long, upper half reflexed, glabrous or velvety towards the base, white. Stamens with the filaments fused below and with a dorsal appendage forming a short fringed or irregularly lobed cup, or appendage absent (in specimens seen from Zululand and TransÂvaal); anthers with an apical, erect, exserted, ovate-acuminate, petaloid, reddish-purple connective-appendage, thecae with an apical, small Ungulate appendage or this reduced to a mucro or 0. Ovary globose, glabrous (in S. Afr. specimens examined), style erect, terete, exserted, c. 4 mm long; stigma minute, apical. Capsule ellipsoid, c. 1,3 cm long, obtusely 3-lobed, hard, muricate, glandular-punctate; seed 1 (-2) per valve, compressed-ovoid, 5 mm, smooth, pale yellow. Fig. 12.
