Medium to large sized unarmed tree, 10-25 m tall, with grey bark and purplish brown, pubescent to glabrescent young shoots. Leaves ovate to broadly ovate, or somewhat deltoid with oblique base, truncate or shallow-deeply cordate; blade 6-15 cm long, 4.5-15 cm broad, 4-6-costate with divergent reticulate venation, tufted-hairy at the junction of veins and veinlets, margin entire or palmately lobed, lamina and lobes acuminate, pubescent to glabrescent with age; petiole 2.3-5 cm long, dorsally grooved, pubescent. Inflorescence of biparous pedunculate cymes; peduncle pubescent or glabrescent. Buds oblong-cylindric, 10-12 mm long. Flowers c. 1 cm across; pedicel 5-6 mm long, pubescent; bracts 3-7 mm long. Calyx tube infundibuliform, 10-toothed, c. 2.5 mm long. Petals 6, linear-oblong, 9-10 mm long, 1-1.5 mm broad, villous on inside at the base, deciduous. Stamens 6, free, anthers 8-9 mm long, filaments very short, villous at the base. Ovary globose, c. 1.5 mm long, puberulous; style terminal, 8 mm long, upwardly clavate, pilose, stigma inconspicuously 2-3-lobed. Drupe elliptic-ovoid, 7-9 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, truncate at the base and apex, glabrescent, somewhat ribbed, fleshy, dark purple.

Fl. Per. May-July

Type: Cochinchina, Loureiro (P, holo., BM, Iso.).

Distribution: Montane regions in W. Pakistan, North India, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, Philippines, Sunda Isles, Japan, Belgium and Portuguese Congo, N. Rhodesia, Angola, Cameroon and Fernando Po. Islands.

The plant is sometimes cultivated in gardens for its beautiful foliage and sweet scented flowers.