Large, deciduous tree with smooth, ash coloured bark; young branches covered with dense, golden yellow, stellate, pubescence; leaves alternate, petiolate, large, simple, entire, cordate, ovate, 7-9 nerved, crowded at the ends of branches; petioles very long, stipules subulate; panicles from leafless axes, few flowered, shorter than leaves; bracteoles caducous; flowers polygamous, small, 2-3 cm, in short, rusty, tomentose panicles; calyx companulate, deeply 5-lobed, densely tomentose, sepals 5, linear-lanceolate; petals absent in male flowers; stamens 5 in a ring, staminal column 3/4th of the length of calyx; in female flowers: carpels 5, ovary sessile, ovules numerous; style slightly connate, recurved; stigma radiating; follicles woody, globose, 12-15 cm across, clothed with mealy pubescent outside, corky within; seeds many, albuminous, oblong, compressed, winged at apex.