Medium to large trees, 9-24 m tall; bark dark grey. Young shoots rusty tomentose. Leaves 13-25 cm long, 4.5-8.5 cm broad, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, sparsely rusty hairy on both sides, ultimately glabrous except on veins and midrib, apex acuminate, base acute; stipules densely rusty-pubescent. Flowers solitary, axillary, 5-7 cm in diameter, fragrant; bracts coriaceous, with rusty or golden tinged hairs; pedicel 3-5 mm long. Perianth of 12-15 (-20) segments each, 2-3.5 cm long, 0.3-l.2 cm broad, subequal, pale yellow to yellow. Stamens 5-7 mm long; filaments l.5-2 mm long; connective prolonged into a triangular apical appendage about 1 mm long: Carpels many, free; ovary 4 mm long, unilocular, 2- several ovuled. Fruiting axis 5-10 cm long. Follicles l-2 cm long, nearly as broad as long, brown, sparsely hairy and covered with warty excrescences, dehiscing from the top downwards on the dorsal side or sometimes along both sides. Seeds l-2 or several, 5-12 mm long, brown, polished, usually rounded on the back.

Fl.Per.: April June.

Type: Described from India.

Distribution: Java, Malaya, Burma, Bangladesh, India, Nepal. Cultivated in Pakistan and elsewhere.

It yields good timber for furniture, panelling and bent wood work. The bark is used in medicine for the treatment of intermittent fevers. Oil is extracted from the flowers and used as a perfume. The flowers are also used in dyeing. Seeds yield a fatty oil.