A small monoecious tree or large shrub up to 9 m with subcomplanate branches and leaves. Bark brown, rough. Wood brownish-white, soft. All parts evenly to densely whitish- to fulvous-pubescent or tomentose. Petioles 2-3 mm long. Leaves elliptic-ovate to elliptic-oblong, (3-) 5-10 x 2-6 cm, acute to subacute or shortly obtusely acuminate, cuneate or rounded-cuneate at the base, lateral nerves 4-7 (-9) pairs, tertiary nerves subparallel, faint. Stipules triangular-lanceolate, 1.5-2 mm, acute. Male flowers: pedicels 5-9 mm long, slender; sepals 6, oblong-lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, obtuse, glabrous within, thick, yellow: staminal column (of 3 fused sessile anthers) 1.5 mm high, with 3 separate conical produced connectives, yellow. Female flowers: pedicels 1-2 mm long, extending to 4-6 mm in fruit; calyx-lobes shorter than the ♂ sepals, green, otherwise similar to them, persistent; ovary 4-7-celled, 8-14-lobed, 1 mm diem., pubescent towards the top; styles fused into a column 1.5 x 1 mm, 4-7-toothed at the apex, pubescent, not or scarcely enlarging in fruit. Fruit depressed-globose to discoid, 8-14-lobed, 4 x 10 mm, evenly pubescent, with the style persistent in the depression. Seeds irregularly obovoid, 3-4 x 4-5 mm, smooth, shiny, red, often remaining attached to the axis after the dehiscence of the fruit.

Fl. Per.: May-July. Fr. Per.: May-December, sometimes with a few fruits persisting until February.

Holotype: India, Tamil Nadu, Nilgiri Hills, Aug. 1985, Wight 2575 (K).

Distribution: Pakistan, India, Nepal, Burma. On dry hills, and common in the Pinus roxburghii (Pinus longifolia) zone. 2600'/792.5 m - 5000'/1524 m.