Evergreen shrub or small tree, up to 5 m tall; wood pale yellow, soft; young branches densely silky; leaves alternate, simple, petiolate, stipulate, 8-17 x 5-12 cm, coriaceous, glabrous on both surfaces, base cordate, margins entire, apex acuminate, 5 nerved, petiole slender up to 10 cm; flowers bisexual, pink-purple, large, showy, fragrant in terminal panicles; sepals-5, imbricate, deciduous; petals-5, broad, free, twisted; stamens many, free, anthers opening by terminal pores; style slender, stigma curved, ovary 1-celled, beaked, ovules many on 2 parietal placentae; capsules about 4 cm, oblong, ovoid, purple to red in colour, softly echinatus; seeds many, trigonous, rounded, embedded in red pulp.