Monoecious tree, 2-20 m tall, the trunk to ca 16 cm dbh; bark light brown, thin, prominently lenticellate; inner bark moderately thick, tan; pubescent all over with erect trichomes, the branchlets becoming glabrate; sap +/- pungent, somewhat foul-smelling. Petioles 5-10 (18) mm long; blades narrowly lanceolate, long-acuminate, cordate and often inequilateral at base, 5-15 cm long, 1.5-5 cm wide, asperous especially above, serrate to subentire; stipules lanceolate, minute. Cymes axillary, to 1.5 cm long; flowers minute, 5-parted, green, greenish-yellow, or whitish; sepals to 1.3 mm long, minutely pubescent outside; petals lacking; anthers of the staminate flowers contained within the boat-shaped tepal in bud, the tension of the elongating filament released when the anther slips from the sepal and springs upward, the thecae directed upward; pollen white, powdery; pistillode columnar; pistillate flowers similar to staminate flowers, the ovary globose, with 2 bifid styles, the stylar bases persisting in fruit. Fruits ovoid or subglobose, 3-4 mm long, red. Croat 6242.