Perennial, tall, columnar tree; bark corky, branches erect with rusty pubescence; leaves very narrow, linear to lanceolate, 5-12 cm long, tapering, thin, glabrous or puberulous beneath; pedicels pubescent; bracts small, linear; flowers in leaf axils; sepals-3, small, pubescent; petals-6 in 2 series, ovate-lanceolate, greenish yellow, silky, pubescent outside, inner petals longer with concave base, acute apex; stamens numerous, free, cuneate, anther cells extrorse; carpels numerous, stalked, young silky, ripe glabrous, styles slender, stigma oblong, ovules 1-2, basal, erect; fruit usually 1-seeded drupe, purple-red, ellipsoid, hardly 1cm long, flesh very thin.