Small, evergreen tree up to 5 m height; trunk short, thick, crooked; leaves alternate, petiolate, exstipulate, simple, obovate, margins quite entire, apex rounded or emarginate, nerves about 10 pairs; petiole 1-2 cm; flowers small, polygamous in terminal, pubescent panicles, up to 25 cm long; bracts lanceolate, gibbous, hoary; sepals 5, erect, ovate-lanceolate, imbricate, deciduous; petals 5, free, yellow with pink stripes, linear-lanceolate; stamens usually 9, unequal, all fertile, one larger than others, filaments connate and adnate to disk; ovary stipitate, obovoid or obcordate, 1-celled, ovule solitary, abortive or rudimentary in male flowers; style filiform, excentric, stigma minute; fruit nut, 1-celled,1-seeded, kidney shaped, seated on enlarged, pyriform, fleshy receptacle, yellowish-orange.