Medium sized tree, up to 13 m tall and c. 60 cm in diameter. Bark pale grey, rough, thin, often lenticellate; live bark pale pinkish-brown, thick, slimy, odorless. Branchlets glabrous, of the flush minutely subsericeous. Terminal bud large, conical; the large bracts broader than long, glabrous to sericeous, inner ones rufous-subtomentellous. Leaves aggregate, glabrous, thinly to thickly coriaceous, oblanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, becoming reflexed with .age, 2.5-6 x 11-12 cm, acuminate with sharp tip; base shortly acute to rounded; both surfaces microscopically pitted-areolate, above glossy-green, the slender midrib deeply impressed, prominulous; below glaucous, midrib prominent, the 10-20 pairs of erect-patent, slender, arcuate nerves prominulous; petiole slender, 1-2 cm long, channeled above. Panicles developing with the flush, sub-terminal, minutely subadpressed pilose, many flowered, up to 15 cm long. Pedicels slender, 5-7 mm long. Sepals almost equal, linear oblong, acutish, both surfaces minutely sub-adpressed pilose, 5-7 mm long; tube short. Stamens almost as long as the tepals, anthers slender, filaments 1.5 times the length of the anthers; glands small on long stipes. Staminodes hastate on long filaments. Ovary ellipsoid; style slender, 2 mm long; stigma inconspicuous. Fruit globose, up to 3 cm in diameter in often elongate, drooping panicles with thickened pedicels, sometimes tinged with red, at maturity black, fleshy.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Type: Kumaon, Strachey & Winterbottom (K).

Distribution: Western outer Himalayas in India and Pakistan to Sikkim and Burma, ascending to 2500 m.