An erect shrub about 5 m high; young parts greyish wooly pubescent. Leaves ovate to subrotund, bifid for about 1/3, (7-) 9-11 nerved, (6-) 12-20 cm long, 5-11 cm broad, base cordate-rotund, top lobes acute rarely subacuminate to blunt, margin entire, upper surface glabrous, lower pubescent to glabrescent, glaucous. Leaf stipulate, stipule lateral, c. 4-20 mm long, pilose, caducous, petiole c. 2-6 cm long, grooved or angular, pilose. Flowers in lateral short racemes, bracteate, bract c. 4-8 mm long, linear, pilose, pedicel c. 1-2 cm long, provided with 2 bracteo¬les slightly below the middle, c. 3 mm long, pilose. Buds fusiform, thinly hairy to glabrous, crested by five calyx teeth. Calyx spathaceous, c. 2.5-3.0 cm long. Petals ovate to lanceolate, blunt c. 3-5 (-6) cm long. Stamens 10 perfect, filaments 1.5-2.5 cm long, hairy, shortly connate at the base, anthers 3.5-7 mm long, with hairy connective. Ovary c. 5-6 mm long, minutely pilose, stipitate, stipe 2-4 mm long, almost glabrous; style c. 12-25 mm long, sparsely pilose. Stigma peltate, bilobed, grooved. Pod 7-15 cm long, c. 12-18 mm wide, glabrous, septate, 3-11 seeded; stipe c. 12-14 mm long. Seed 7-10 mm across, flattened, black.

Fl. Per.: March-May.

Holotype: Madras, Chepank, 9.10.1901, Ex Herb. Sir A.C. and Lady Bourne (K).

Distribution: India (U.P., Bengal, Madras); Ceylon; Burma; Siam; Cochinchina; Malay-Peninsula; Indonesia, Java; British N. Borneo, Phiplipines. Cultivated in W. Pakistan and other places.

This species is frost hardy and starts flowering when the plants are only a few months old; cultivated as an ornamental shrub.